Astoria school district update

Published 8:00 am Thursday, December 18, 2025

Astoria School District Superintendent Craig Hoppes on Wednesday, Dec. 10 delivered a detailed 10-year enrollment analysis showing significant shifts in student numbers, cohort sizes and family school choices — trends he said the district must continue to monitor closely.

Hoppes used October enrollment data from 2016-17 to 2025-26 school years to create year-to-year comparisons. Annual kindergarten enrollment showed one of the most dramatic changes, falling from a high of 164 students in 2017 to a low of 104 in 2021–22.

“That’s a difference of 60 kids,” Hoppes told the board. “Over 10 years, kindergarten is down 24.65 percent. You can compare that, but we also need to remember those are not the same kids — it’s a different group each year.”

Overall, district enrollment for October counts is down about 7.5 percent over the decade. Yet some grade levels showed growth, including the current sixth-grade cohort, which increased 19 percent over 10 years.

“It’s hard to vary the data because some cohorts go up, some go down,” Hoppes said. “But this gives us a baseline to understand what’s happening.”

Cohort data shows pandemic losses

Hoppes also examined how many students remain with the district as they move through grade levels. The class of 2019, for instance, began with 148 students and graduated 135.

“So that is a difference of 13 kids,” he said. “Some years I can go back 10 years, some only four or five, but the pattern is clear — 2019 through 2022 show the biggest drops, especially coming out of the pandemic.”

Other classes have grown, including the current junior class, which has 36 more students than the cohort size a decade earlier.

17%of students come from outside the district

One of the “pretty telling” data points, according to Hoppes, was the number of students attending Astoria schools through courtesy enrollment agreements. This year, 299 students live outside district boundaries.

“That’s 17.44 percent of our enrollment,” he said, calling it “a significant number of kids coming from outside our district.”

After surveying courtesy enrollment families, Hoppes said the responses were positive.

“They said a lot of good things,” he said. “People choose Astoria because of the programs we offer — not just electives, but literacy and specialized services. Many families specifically praised our staff and talked about how much they appreciate the work being done.”

Homeschooled and students outside the district 

Hoppes also reported that 42 students living within district boundaries are registered as homeschooled, though he believes the true number is significantly higher.

“I think that number is closer to 60 to 80 kids,” he said. “We only have 42 registered, but there are kids out there who haven’t registered like they’re supposed to.”

In addition, 144 district-resident students attend charter schools in other districts.

“That’s the flip side of courtesy enrollments coming in,” Hoppes said. “We have 144 kids leaving.”

He estimated the district may have “220 to 240 kids potentially going to school outside the district” when considering homeschooled students and charter school enrollment.

Attendance remains a concern

Astoria High School continues to struggle with attendance, with only 66% of students meeting the state’s regular attender threshold. Some students are staying home but still completing coursework through Google Classroom.

Hoppes said the trend is affecting traditional attendance data.

Lynn Jackson, principal of Astoria High School, said the graduating class of 2026 were 90% on track,  junior class 97% and sophomore class 95%. 

Jackson said the goal for attendance by the end of the academic year is 80% of students would have demonstrated 90% attendance. 

Looking ahead

“This was a big year of data,” Hoppes said. “If there are other things you want me to look into, just let me know. We’re trying to understand who’s here, who’s not, and how we support all of our students.”

Astoria School Board District will meet at 5:45 for study session and 7 p.m. for general meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 14 at Captain Robert Elementary, 785 Alameda, Ave.