Public school enrollment is dropping in many states, including in New York. It may come as no surprise that the year 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, erased a decade of steady growth in U.S. classrooms.

Dwight Bonk is a familiar face at Vassar Road Elementary School in Poughkeepsie. Bonk, an education professional of over 25 years, roams the hallways. He’s the superintendent of Wappingers Central School District.

“I’m very, very proud of you and the work that you’ve done all year,” Bonk said to a classroom of students. “And your behavior has been exemplary.”

The state Education Department reports there are around 10,400 students in the Wappingers public school system. That’s a loss of nearly 300 students compared to pre-pandemic levels a few years ago.

“It certainly is a concern,” said Bonk. “I don’t think anyone likes to lose population in enrollment. We certainly don’t.”

Bonk said elementary schools are seeing a slight uptick in the number of students enrolled since the COVID-19 pandemic. The decrease he notices is at the junior high and high school levels.

“We see that, unfortunately, people are leaving. They’re leaving the state. They’re leaving regions of the state,” he said. “And as educators, we need to ensure that we provide our students with the necessary resources, and that we dig deep and take a look at our annual budgets to make sure that they provide the students with the programs and services that they need.”

Public schools across New York are seeing falling enrollment.

The National Center for Education Statistics predicts New York will continue its downward trend, and see more of a decrease in the fall of 2030 than what classrooms saw in the fall of 2020.

“In order to have a healthy public school system, we need to have a healthy economy and a healthy New York state,” said David Albert, chief communications and marketing officer for the New York State School Boards Association. “So everything does work together, and we look to our legislative leaders and the governor obviously to put in place policies that will facilitate that.”

Bonk said he and the teachers in the district are committed to providing the best services possible, to retain students and set them up for success beyond their high school education.

“One of things that we’ve done here in Wappingers over the past couple years, is we’ve looked to increase our business education partnerships. We’ve strengthened our relationships with our local colleges and universities. We’ve also worked with the skilled trades as well,” he said.

The New York State School Boards Association said state aid is allocated to school districts based on student enrollment, and that the school districts losing enrollment tend to be more rural and poor.

The organization said it’s advocating for state aid to help support New York school districts and reduce the property tax burden on districts, so that the needs of the students don’t go unmet.