I am not sure why, but “Oak Harbor Mayor Jim Slowik said enrollment is up at the high school” (News-Times, Mar 29 2008, Island leaders plead with senator for housing help), yet the latest reported headcount data for the OHSD shows a drop each year for the last five years (fall of 2002 to fall of 2007) from 1,806 to 1,685 students in grades 9-12: a decline of 121. If this trend holds, by 2013, we’ll have only about 1,450 students at OHHS. State figures also indicate we have present capacity for 1,495 students at the high school. That’s without the additional 30,000 square feet to be added between now and 2012.

William Burnett

Oak Harbor