Washington County Schools enrollment down 251 students

Washington County Schools Board of Education officials said district enrollment has declined by at least 251 students since August 2025 at Thursday's regular meeting. According to recent data reports, district enrollment declined from 8,010 students in August 2025 to 7,759 in December 2025. The schools with the most notable declines were Jonesborough Elementary, which lost 60 students, and Boones Creek Elementary, down 48 students. Daniel Boone and David Crockett High schools lost 33 and 32 students respectively. Washington County Schools Superintendent Jerry Boyd said that while the drop isn't significant, it could be the result of several factors, such as students graduating and families leaving the area. "We have had a decline in enrollment as we started this year," he said, noting it was a "small decline" that is "less than last year." "Some of that is [due to changes in] size of classes, graduating classes," he continued. "[It's also] from people moving out of the district, whether moving physically out of Washington County or otherwise." The enrollment report comes as several local education officials continue to call for more data transparency on private school vouchers awarded through the Education Freedom Act of 2025. Those calls have grown louder as lawmakers prepare to consider expanding the program further in the 2026 General Assembly. Both Boyd and board member Gregg Huddlestone noted there's still no way to quantify whether private school vouchers contributed to recent enrollment declines unless the state makes that information available. "How many of them left for home schools? How many left for vouchers? How many moved out? I can't say. That's of course some of the data that we don't seem to get," Huddlestone said. Thursday's brief discussion on enrollment followed a recent series of meetings between local school leaders and state Sen. Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City, state Rep. Tim Hicks, R-Gray, and state Rep. Rebecca Alexander, R-Jonesborough, to discuss legislative priorities moving forward. Alexander reiterated her opposition to private school vouchers and expansion during a meeting with Johnson City Schools officials. Johnson City Schools officials also pressed Crowe and Hicks during a Monday legislative meeting on whether more data will be made available to gauge the true impact of vouchers on public schools. Despite both lawmakers' previous support for private school vouchers, Crowe said he'd be unwilling to support expansion without more data on vouchers awarded during the 2025-26 school year. "We need to see where we are and the [Tennessee Department of Education] needs to get with us and let us know how they feel and how the program's going," Crowe said. Neither Crowe nor Hicks ruled out supporting voucher expansion.