TRI-LAKES : Enrollment at Tupper Lake Central drops while Lake Placid and Keene stay steady
Classes at public and private schools around the region kicked off on Thursday with class sizes mostly staying the same, some dropping to the lowest they’ve been in years and others rising slightly.
Tupper Lake Central School District’s enrollment dropped to the lowest it’s been in decades.
Enrollment in Lake Placid and Keene’s districts held steady. AuSable Valley CSD is seeing a slight decline in students. Long Lake CSD — the smallest of the public school districts — saw an enrollment bump.
Saranac Lake CSD’s enrollment numbers were not available by the end of the first day of classes. They should be available in Saturday’s Enterprise.
In private schools, St. Bernard’s School, Northwood School, North Country School and Northern Lights Guardianship all held steady enrollments. Adirondack Christian School’s enrollment rose slightly as the school has nearly tripled its enrollment over the past five years, putting it at capacity with a wait list and plans to expand further.
Tupper Lake
Tupper Lake’s enrollment dropped to the lowest it has been in a very long time. On the first day of classes, there were a total of 671 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Annual Enterprise records of enrollment numbers show a long, slow decline in students since the turn of the millennium, when TLCSD had more than 1,000 students.
This is also a sizeable drop from the 733 students TLCSD had on opening day last year.
“We had a huge senior class last year and our smallest class this year is pre-K,” Superintendent Jaycee Welsh said.
The district has 32 students in pre-kindergarten, down from 47 last year. The district graduated 60 students in June.
The district has 339 students in kindergarten through sixth grade and 332 in grades seven through 12.
Welsh said school enrollments have been down statewide in the past 15 years or so, particularly in rural areas. Urban districts have seen enrollment increases.
“For whatever reason, student populations have grown more toward the cities,” Welsh said.
She said there is a cultural trend of more people raising families in cities than rural areas.
Having fewer students impacts the district’s state aid.
“Obviously, the major concern of going down in enrollment is funding,” Welsh said. “The less students you have right now, based on the state aid formula, the less funding that you get.
“The tough thing is, while the numbers have dropped, student needs have increased,” she added.
She said student mental health challenges are at an all-time high, and rural areas have less access to resources than urban areas.
“That was part of the argument this past year when they were doing the state aid recalculations,” Welsh said. “The number of students shouldn’t necessarily be the driving force (behind state aid).”
While recommendations to make a change were made, nothing has come of it so far, she said.
Welsh said she’s working with local government on efforts to strengthen housing in Tupper Lake. The town can’t bring in new families without good housing, she said.
Welsh also said the first day of the statewide ban on cell phones in schools went well.
Staff told her they loved walking into the lunch room and hearing a level of conversation they haven’t heard in years. One staff member told her they got the most “hello”s they’ve ever received in the hallway because students weren’t looking down at their phones.
Lake Placid
Lake Placid CSD has 537 enrolled in grades K-12, slightly more than the 530 that were enrolled at the beginning of last year, according to Superintendent Tim Seymour. This year, there are 38 enrolled in the pre-K program.
St. Agnes School — which hosts LPCSD’s universal pre-K program — has a total enrollment of 125 students this year, with 50 kids in grades K-3 and 75 students in preschool, according to Principal Katie Turner. This is an increase of 13% from last year’s total enrollment.
The increase in preschool students is mainly due to the addition of classrooms for infants and toddlers as a part of the pilot program for the youngest group of kids that begins this year. There are 12 toddlers included in the school’s overall preschool student count. An additional eight infants will begin at the school later this month, Turner said.
AuSable Valley
AuSable Valley CSD has 1,080 students enrolled for the 2025-26 school year, 14 less than last year. This marks a continued trend of declining enrollment, although the drop in enrollment was smaller this year than the previous, according to numbers provided by district clerk Tammy Sheffer.
AuSable Forks Elementary School is set to have an enrollment of 236 this year, an increase in seven students compared to last year. Keeseville Elementary School, on the other hand, will have 350 students, which is 18 fewer students than last year. This is the second straight year Keeseville has seen a significant drop in enrollment.
The AuSable Valley Middle School, which includes grades 7 and 8, is going into this year with 170 students — 17 more than last year. The high school has 350 students — six more than last.
Keene Valley
Keene Central School has seen fluctuating enrollment in recent years, something interim Superintendent Cynthia Ford-Johnston said is pretty typical for a small school. The school had 173 students during the 2024-25 school year, and is starting this year with 164 students.
Ford-Johnston added that there might be a handful of additional students registering at the school soon, which could bring their number up a bit.
“We’re fully staffed, which is amazing,” she added.
Keene Central School is currently conducting a search for a new superintendent following the departure of Dan Mayberry, who served in that role for 11 years. Ford-Johnston is helping in the interim, returning to the role she filled for 16 years prior to Mayberry’s tenure.
Long Lake
The Long Lake Central School District’s K-12 enrollment increased significantly from last year. With 60 students enrolled in K-12, this year marks an 18% increase from the 51 students in the district last year.
The district also has one student enrolled in its full-day pre-K program this year, down from eight last year.
Long Lake has mostly had enrollment in the 60s in recent years, except for when it dipped down into the 50s between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Adirondack Christian School
Adirondack Christian School in Wilmington has seen its enrollment nearly triple in the past five years, and is currently at capacity.
In 2021, the K-12 school had 40 students. In 2022, it jumped to 70. In 2024, the rise continued to 105.
Classes started on Thursday with 110 students and around a dozen more on a waiting list, according to Director Harold Akey.
The private Baptist school, in its 59th year, draws students from 13 school districts all over the region. There are 62 students in the pre-K to sixth grade building and 48 in the seventh to 12th grade building.
“I could have more,” Akey said. “I just don’t have the capacity.”
It’s a “good problem to have,” he added.
He said they’re working on bringing two or three new classrooms online and hiring a few new teachers. They’re looking for people who want to invest in young people and those who have skills in the trades.
Akey’s son graduated from ACS two years ago. He said his son didn’t want another four years of classes in college, so he went to a trade school.
ACS offers things like shop class, trade skills and maple syruping.
“I have some boys who would hate Algebra 2, but they could build you one heck of a barn shed,” Akey said.
In his generation, he said college was the focus. Now, there’s a huge need for people in trades.
Akey feels the school’s growth has to do with its unique take on education. He compares its hybrid style of education to somewhere between a traditional school and a homeschool co-op, where students can split time learning at the school and at home.
He’s big on community and parental involvement. People want to be involved in their kids’ education, he said.
And the school’s enrollment, though big for ACS, is not large compared to public schools, which some parents like.
St. Bernard’s School
The St. Bernard’s School, a private Catholic school in Saranac Lake, has 72 students in its kindergarten through fifth-grade classes, the same as last year.
The school also has 18 students in a pre-K class, one more than when it was added to the curriculum last year.
The school’s enrollment has been steady in recent years, rising since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Before the pandemic, the school had 63 students.
Principal Andrea Kilbourne-Hill said there was zero teacher turnover this year, so they are coming into the year strong.
She also said, after a mass shooting outside of a church at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, which killed two children and injured 18 others last week, the school is working with the Saranac Lake Police Department to focus on increasing safety at the school. The shooting weighed heavily on their minds as they prepared for school, she said.
On Thursday, SLPD officers were at the school, talking with the kids as they started their days. Kilbourne-Hill said the police plan to add St. Bernard’s to their daily rotation of local school check-ins.
Northwood School
Northwood School in Lake Placid has the same number of students this year as last year — 193 students. This includes 156 boarding students and 37 day students. Compared to last year, a higher percentage of students are boarding students. Their student body is made up of kids from 23 countries and 23 states, said Northwood Head of School Gino Riffle.
Northern Lights
Northern Lights Guardianship Administrator Polly Kelting said the Waldorf-inspired, nature-based center for youngsters in Saranac Lake has 15 infants and toddlers and 23 in pre-K classes this year. This is a return to form after a dip to 17 preschoolers last year.
This is the fourth year the center has been in its new building, the former Lake Colby School building.
Kelting said they recently opened a second preschool room and are still accepting new enrollments.
Formerly “Northern Lights School,” Kelting said they have rebranded as “Northern Lights Guardianship” because they do not have a charter with the state.
“Same amazing results, just a different name,” she said.
Kelting also said they are pursuing a farm-to-table early childhood education program in the back play area. The center has a Community Supported Agriculture shed outside their front door and volunteer members who have expertise in gardening. She said having a garden the kids can work in also supports their nature-oriented education.
North Country School
North Country School started with a slight decrease in students, with 75 students — 44 domestic and international boarding students and 31 day students from surrounding communities.
“Our enrollment remains steady year-over-year and reflects broader national and international trends, where boarding schools are experiencing normal fluctuations shaped by demographic and economic shifts,” NCS Communications Director Stanzi Bliss said in an email.
Bliss said students hail from six countries — China, Guatemala, Taiwan, Barbados, Puerto Rico and Canada — as well as 11 states and Washington, D.C. — Florida, Louisiana, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia and North Carolina.
“Like many private boarding schools, we’re finding that families are drawn to North Country School because our values align with their own,” Bliss said. “Parents seek an environment that reflects their priorities — whether that’s the sense of community we foster or the values we instill in our students through the place-based, experiential learning we provide on our 320-acre campus in Lake Placid. That alignment continues to be one of the strongest drivers of enrollment at NCS, and the skills and perspectives children gain here are ones our alumni often describe as foundational in their lives.”
By the numbers
These numbers are unofficial, reported by schools to the Enterprise during the first few days of classes. Schools are listed from most populous to least populous.
Preschool enrollment is not included. An asterisk () indicates the district also hosts preschool.
AuSable Valley Central School District (K-12)
2025-26: 1,080
2024-25: 1,094
2023-24: 1,149
2022-23: 1,166
2021-22: 1,155
2020-21: 1,133
2019-20: 1,125
Saranac Lake Central School District (K-12)
2025-26: N/A (to be added later)
2024-25: 1,044
2023-24: 1,070
2022-23: 1,067
2021-22: 1,110
2020-21: 1,099
2019-20: 1,163
Tupper Lake Central School District (K-12)
2025-26: 703
2024-25: 733
2023-24: 722
2022-23: N/A
2021-22: 736
2020-21: 802
2019-20: 762
Lake Placid Central School District (K-12)
2025-26: 537
2024-25: 530
2023-24: 550
2022-23: 537
2021-22: 559
2020-21: 561
2019-20: 606
Northwood School (Private, Lake Placid, 9-12)
2025-26: 193
2024-25: 193
2023-24: 178
2022-23: N/A
2021-22: 187
2020-21: 187
2019-20: N/A
Keene Central School (K-12)
2025-26: 164
2024-25: 173
2023-24: 170
2022-23: N/A
2021-22: 167
2020-21: 157
2019-20: 156
North Country School (Private, Lake Placid, 4-9)
2025-26: 75
2024-25: 81
2023-24: 84
2022-23: 86
2021-22: 76
2020-21: 67
2019-20: 76
St. Bernard’s School (Catholic, Saranac Lake, K-5)
2025-26: 72
2024-25: 72
2023-24: 75
2022-23: N/A
2021-22: 79
2020-21: 63
2019-20: 68
St. Agnes School (Catholic, Lake Placid, K-3)
2025-26: 50
2024-25: 46
2023-24: 43
2022-23: 43
2021-22: 52
2020-21: 48
2019-20: 43
Adirondack Christian School (Baptist, Wilmington, K-12)
2025-26: 110
2024-25: 105
2023-24: 96
2022-23: 70
2021-22: 40
2020-21: 30
2019-20: 30
Long Lake Central School (K-12)
2025-26: 60
2024-25: 51
2023-24: 56
2022-23: 60
2021-22: 65
2020-21: 68
2019-20: 65
Northern Lights School (Waldorf, Saranac Lake)
2025-26: 0
2024-25: 0
2023-24: 0
2022-23: 0
2021-22: 0
2020-21: 0
2019-20: 3