School registration begins

MAT-SU -- Early registration in the Matanuska-Sustina Borough School District began last week, and, although the number of students registered for the 2003-2004 school year has not yet been calculated, the district estimates 14,200 students will attend school in the Mat-Su district this year.

"Registration will be ongoing, it's something that will continue through September," said Kim Floyd, public information specialist for the district. Floyd said that while regular registration happened last week, more students are expected to register throughout the next month; students register later due to things like summer vacations and new-student moves.

Floyd said that although official numbers are not known, an estimated 600 students have registered in the district's correspondence study school. The school's principal has estimated 80 percent of those students are registered in the Track 2 program.

"Correspondence school enrollment is going like gangbusters," Floyd said. Track 2 is a home-school support program that allows parents to have control over the curriculum taught to their children, but gives the parents more opportunity to work with teachers in the district than in normal home-school settings. This will be the second year the program is available in the district.

"We feel obligated to educate all the children in the borough," Floyd said. "Track 2 allows us to be more involved with home-school students."

School will start Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. Early registration numbers are excepted to be made public in the next couple of weeks. The official districtwide registration number will be counted in October. In October 2002, 13,588 students were registered in Mat-Su.