School enrollment trends vary across Ozark County’s districts

Now that Ozark County’s public school districts have been in session for nearly two months, the beginning-of-the-year new student fluctuations have evened out, and enrollment numbers are in. 

Size of the districts

Gainesville remains the largest of the county’s five school districts with 603 enrolled for the 2026-27 school year, which means it will educate about 41 percent of students enrolled in public school in Ozark County this year. Bakersfield follows with 429 students, or 29 percent, of students. Dora has 273 students (18.5 percent), while Lutie has 129 (9 percent).

The smaller K-8 Thornfield district has 40 students, making up the remainder of the  Ozark County public student population. 

Mark Twain School, just across the Ozark County line in Taney County, is another K-8 district that some Ozark Countians attend. It has 78 students enrolled this year.

While several area schools have seen enrollment decline in recent years, the numbers also show some notable growth in some districts.

Gainesville School: 603 students

Gainesville's enrollment this year is 603 students, down 10 from last year's 613, according to Superintendent Justin Gilmore.

The district has experienced an overall downward trend in recent years, although enrollment has fluctuated along the way.

Gainesville recorded the following enrollment numbers over the years:

2018-19: 671 students;

2019-20: 671 students;

2020-21: 626 students;

2021-22: 622 students;

2022-23: 661 students;

2023-24: 651 students;

2024-25: 614 students;

2025-26: 613 students;

2026-27: 603 students.

Gilmore said two smaller kindergarten classes over the past two years, along with the recent graduation of one of the district's larger classes, have contributed to the recent decrease.

“We monitor these changes closely to guide district planning while continuing to provide a quality education and strong opportunities for our students,” he explained.

Bakersfield School: 429 students

Bakersfield is down nine students overall from the end of last school year, Superintendent Dr. Amy Padgett reported.

This year’s student enrollment inlcudes 213 elementary students (pre-K to sixth grade), 46 middle school students (seventh and eighth grades) and 136 high school students.

Padgett points out that the district's enrollment history offers an interesting look at its transition from a five-day school week to a four-day schedule with an average increase in enrollment by about 8 percent with the shorter school week. 

State law requires Bakersfield and other districts (Gainesville and Lutie are also operating on a four-day school week) to still meet the requirement of 1,044 hours of student attendance per school year. Some districts have lengthened the school days, added in occasional five-day weeks and adjusted the calendar to meet that criteria on the four-day school week schedule. 

During the nine years Bakersfield operated on a five-day schedule, from 2009-10 through 2017-18, regular Pre K-12 enrollment averaged 372 students. During the nine years on the four-day schedule, enrollment has increased to an average of 401 students. 

Padgett discussed several factors affecting this year's enrollment. She said a few students have elected to homeschool or enroll in an online platform through another district. Bakersfield also offers its own online platform, with approximately 10 full-time students enrolled in it this year.

Bakersfield also offers online courses through its virtual learning lab, allowing students to take classes that aren't available through the regular curriculum. Padgett said the program was developed about 15 years ago after a student wanted to take an advanced course the school did not offer, and it has since became a major asset to the district with many students taking advantage of it now.

Bakersfield also draws a significant number of students from outside the district, she explained. Nearly one-third of the high school is made up of non-resident students who come from other area K-8 schools.

Preschool enrollment is down seven students from last year, which Padgett attributed to state budget cuts.

Dora School: 273 students

Dora currently has 273 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, Superintendent Brett Mitchell reported.

That represents an approximately 10 percent decrease from five years ago and an approximately 20 percent decrease from 10 years ago. Earlier this year, he credited some of the drop to families who are choosing homeschooling versus public school. 

The district’s enrollment history shows that the decline has been gradual rather than a sharp drop in any one year.

Dora had 342 students in 2010-11, followed by 326 in 2012-13 and 325 in 2013-14. By 2018-19, enrollment had fallen to 297 students.  The district remained at 297 students in 2019-20 and again in 2022-23. Dora actually saw a slight increase in the following school year, reaching 300 students in 2023-24.

The current enrollment of 273 represents a return to the longer-term downward trend after that brief increase.

Looking back roughly a decade, Dora has gone from more than 300 students to fewer than 275. An enrollment change of 25 students might not be felt as keenly in a large district, but it is noticeable in a smaller district like Dora when that loss equals nearly 10 percent of the student population. 

Lutie School: 129 students

Lutie’s current enrollment is 129 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, with no students enrolled virtually for the 2026-27 school year. Virtual student enrollment has dropped each year since covid, statistics show. In 2021-22, the district had 11 students enrolled in all-virtual learning. That number dropped the next year to 7, then 5, then 4, 2 and this year all enrolled students are in the classroom rather than online. 

The district’s enrollment history shows a longer-term decline, but it also tells a more complicated story than a simple year-to-year drop.

Lutie had 207 students in 2010-11, making this year’s enrollment about 78 students lower than it was 16 years ago. Enrollment had fallen to 156 students by 2012-13 and 150 in 2013-14. By 2019-20, the district had 140 students.

Enrollment rose during the early 2020s, reaching 131 students in 2020-21 and then 136 in 2021-22. The district’s enrollment subsequently dipped to 114 in 2022-23 before climbing back to 120 in 2023-24 and 129 in 2024-25.

Lutie then recorded 122 students in 2025-26 before returning to 129 this year.

That means the district’s overall enrollment is back to the same 129-student mark it reached two years ago, even as the number of students participating virtually has fallen to zero.

Taken over the longer term, however, Lutie remains considerably smaller than it was in the early 2010s. The district has lost more than one-third of its enrollment since the 207 students recorded in 2010-11.

Thornfield school: 40 students

Thornfield has 40 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade, Superintendent Melissa Campbell reported.

Campbell said the school had only 32 students when she first came into the superintendent’s office in 2018.

Enrollment reached a high of 50 students after the covid pandemic, but the school has generally remained a small district, with an average enrollment of about 45 students.

The district had 43 students in 2018-19 and 38 in 2019-20. Enrollment increased to 49 in 2022-23 and 52 in 2023-24 before dropping to 48 in 2024-25 and 40 this year.

This year’s 40 students are down from that recent average, but still eight more than the school had in 2018.

Mark Twain: 78 students

One area school bucking the broader enrollment trend is Mark Twain, a K-8 school in Rueter, just across the Ozark County line in Taney County, west of Theodosia. 

Mark Twain has 78 students enrolled this year, up from the 69 students last year and 47 in 2017-18.

Enrollment has generally climbed over the past decade:

2017-18: 47;

2018-19: 54;

2019-20: 59;

2020-21: 51;

2021-22: 55;

2022-23: 59;

2023-24: 71;

2024-25: 65;

2025-26: 69;

2026-27: 78.

Superintendent Joe Donley said the school has seen only two years in the past decade when enrollment declined from the previous year, with much of the growth coming from people moving to the area from other parts of the country.

Mark Twain’s enrollment includes pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. After eighth grade, students from the school are eligible to attend Gainesville or Lutie schools in Ozark County or Bradleyville or Forsyth in Taney County.

Homeschool students: unknown

The number of students being homeschooled in Ozark County is difficult to determine, because Missouri does not require families to register with the state when they homeschool. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says it does not regulate or monitor homeschooling, and no homeschooling records are required to be sent to the department.

Missouri law allows parents who homeschool to file a declaration of enrollment with their county recorder of deeds or the chief school officer of their local public school district, but the filing is voluntary. Because of that, there is no reliable statewide count of all children currently being homeschooled, making it difficult to determine how many local students may have left traditional school enrollment for homeschooling.

A changing enrollment picture

Taken together, the numbers show a varied enrollment picture across the area.

Gainesville remains the largest district by a considerable margin, while Bakersfield continues to draw students from outside its district and has maintained a higher average enrollment during its years on a four-day schedule compared with the five day week

Dora and Lutie show some of the more significant long-term changes. Dora has declined from 342 students in 2010-11 to 273 this year, while Lutie has fallen from 207 students to 129 over the same general period.

Both districts have also had periods when enrollment held relatively steady or even increased. Dora remained near 300 students for several years and reached 300 in 2023-24, while Lutie briefly climbed into the mid-130s in the early 2020s before settling back near 125 to 130 students.

Thornfield’s enrollment remains relatively steady for a small K-8 school, while Mark Twain has grown by more than 30 students over the past decade, with its superintendent attributing much of that growth to new families moving into the area.