Professional photographer Lisa Polucci recently captured this rather dramatic scene near the CSX rail line in Decatur.  A red-tail hawk captured a squirrel on the grass, just as a CSX train went roaring past.  The end result is the photo above.

But that’s not the only shot Lisa took.  If you’re not too weak in the stomach, there’s an even more dramatic photo of the incident after the jump.

All photos copyrighted by Lisa Polucci Photography.

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Attached to the Superintendent’s note to the Decatur School Board for next week’s meeting is an enrollment update for the coming school year.  Enrollment opened up in February and continues throughout the summer.

The enrollment committee, made up of CSD staff and residents, recommended earlier this year that the Board use a “one-year cohort ratio” to determine enrollment for coming years.  If I recall correctly, this was because enrollment had been growing so rapidly in the last year or so that a three or five year average was thought to likely underestimate next year’s enrollment.

As noted in the attachment, “The aggressive one-­‐year cohort ratio anticipated that up to 384 new students may enroll for the 2012-­‐2013 school year. At the time of this writing, 250 students have enrolled.”  Among the individual grades, Kindergarten, 1st and 12th grade have already met or surpassed their projections.

With all this in mind, I followed up with Asst. Superintendent Thomas Van Soelen to get the administration’s take on these enrollment levels to-date.  Here’s his thoughtful reply in full…

Dr. Edwards commissioned an Enrollment Committee Fall 2011 (parents and staff) to engage in learning around the following two questions:

1. How might we accurately predict the enrollment trends for the future?
2. How might our buildings best be used to plan for that uncertain future?

The committee worked intensely for several months and offered a presentation and report to the Board 011012:

• enrollment committee presentation
• enrollment committee report

Recommendations begin on page 13 and include several actions that are relevant to some of the ideas that emerged in a previous post about the central office:

1. Surveying the community for data regarding birth-age four children
2. enrollment calculations

We used a one-year cohort ratio analysis to project 12-13 enrollment. Prior to the 12-13 school year, either two-year or three-year cohort ratios were used (see the report for the math about how these ratios work.) The committee noted that with the burgeoning enrollment of birth-age five children, a more aggressive formula was warranted. The Board has been considering 12-13 enrollment reports at each Board meeting. Here is a link to the most recent report.

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Higgs event courtesy of Wikipedia