9,236 students enrolled in county schools

Cherokee County schools saw their enrollments climb in the 10 days of school before the Labor Day holiday weekend.

There were 9,326 students enrolled in county schools on the 10th day of school. This was almost a 500-student increase from the 8,850 students that were in school for the first day of classes Aug. 18.

School enrollments traditionally increase over the first two weeks with the addition of out-of-state students and 4-year-old kindergarten programs.

State law requires students under the age of 17 to attend school for 180 days. Some county students return to school after being located by school attendance officers.

Gaffney High is the largest county school with 2,132 students. This figure includes 703 freshmen attending class in the school's new ninth grade addition.

Blacksburg High has 542 students, including 160 students in its ninth grade addition. Blacksburg Middle has 424 students.

Gaffney Middle is the largest middle school in the district with 692 students. Northwest Elementary has the most elementary students with 519 students.

Alma Elementary is the smallest school with 249 students.

The Cherokee County School District has used one of the five contingency teaching positions in the $61 million budget approved in June.

Assistant superintendent Andy Jones said the district has not made any decisions on whether it will hire additional teachers to handle the enrollment increases.

With a tight budget, Jones said the district will look carefully at options for dealing with large class sizes before it hires additional teachers.

"We have not made a decision yet," Jones said. "We will monitor the class sizes to see if there any changes we can make before we use any more of the contingency teaching positions."