School administrators, however, are already making plans and are up to the new challenge.
To put it simply: the district's enrollment is growing.
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"We had our first kindergarten round-up session today (Monday)," Vermillion Elementary Principal Bob Bowker told the Vermillion School Board Monday, "and we ended up with 20 that came through that are coming next year, and we have three more that are on the list that are coming later in the week."
So far, the list of students that could potentially enroll in kindergarten this fall totals 123.
"I've been here 23 years, and that's the largest kindergarten list we've had going into round-up," Bowker said. "It looks real good � we'll have somewhere between 115 and 120 students in kindergarten next year. That's very positive on the enrollment part."
He believes the growing kindergarten numbers are a reflection of positive changes occurring in the Vermillion community.
"I think maybe Vermillion has become a little bit more diversified," Bowker said, "and we're having some new businesses coming in, so the college students and graduate students don't come and go as they have in the past.
"If you watch our enrollment numbers, we don't seem to be losing students like we used to," he added. "In fact, sometimes we are actually gaining a few."
For this 2005-06 school year, kindergarten is already the largest class in Vermillion public elementary schools. The second largest class is fifth grade.
"With our kindergarten, with 115 to 120 students, I think we can still go with six sections," Bowker said. "We'll have to see how things play out during the rest of the round-up this week, and through April and May."
Bowker suggested expanding the first grade to six sections. It appears enrollment will total approximately 110 students at that grade level next year.
"Second grade numbers are hitting up to 90, and we probably should go to five sections with that class," he said.
This can be done, he said, without hiring additional staff. "We can pick one of those positions from Jolley (Elementary) and move them to Austin (Elementary) to help out," he said.
Bowker said school officials will have a better idea of enrollment trends in Vermillion's third and fourth grade classes by May.
"It would appear that we will need to add two sections at Austin, and we will drop a section at Jolley," he said.
That will mean an additional K-5 teacher will need to be hired.
"We will open it up to anybody at Jolley that wanted to move over to Austin," Bowker said.
Growing enrollment figures are welcomed by school officials, but the growth in the district means changes will need to be made in more than staffing.
"Space is becoming a problem," Bowker said. "If we continue running these numbers of 115 students, which hopefully we will, that's going to create some space problems in both buildings eventually," Bowker said.
There is room at Austin Elementary for two more classrooms, he said, but it will mean holding classes in the music room and on the school's stage.
"That shouldn't be a problem," he said. "We've been through that before."
The numbers alone easily justify the hiring of a new teacher for next year, school board member Nick Merrigan said, noting that 85 students will graduate from Vermillion High School this spring and 30 additional students will start kindergarten this fall.
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