The Robbinsdale School District had one of its biggest enrollment declines in a decade during the 2008-09 school year, but projections show a leveling off of the student population within a few years.

The district lost 477 students last year, a decline of almost 4 percent, said Dennis Beekman, district executive director of technology. That loss continued a slow and steady decline that began decades ago. Enrollment peaked at more than 20,000 students in 1972; the district currently has more than 12,000 students.

This fall, the district projects enrollment will decline another 292, to about 11,800.

Beekman said the decline is simply a matter of fewer births in the district and an aging population.

"This is not a local phenomenon," he said. "It's very common to first- and second-ring suburbs in the metro area."

Declining student populations represent more than just demographic blips. Funding from the state is tied to each student enrolled in a school district. Beekman put that amount at $5,174 per student. That means Robbinsdale lost almost $2.5 million in state aid compared with the year before.

Though last year's decline was steep, it wasn't unexpected. Beekman said district projections were within a dozen of the actual student loss figure. As a result, the district was able to lower its expenses to make up for the expected decline in revenues.

"Because we were anticipating a decline we hired staff required to teach the number of students we had," Beekman said. Despite this, there are no positives for a district that can be gleaned from losing students.

"There's less revenue to work with," Beekman said. "Also, you typically have more [education] options in a district that has a higher level of enrollment."

One sign of the district's adjustment to smaller enrollments has been school closings. Robbinsdale closed two elementary schools and one middle school at the end of the 2008-09 school year because it had too much classroom space, and in an effort to save $2 million a year.

Beekman said enrollment projections indicate no gains in the near future, but some improvement over last year's losses.

"It looks like the pattern [of dropping enrollment] will continue over the next several years, then start to plateau," he said. "We don't see any increases over the next 10 years... [But] we're starting to ease out of it... We're anticipating less of a loss next year."

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547