Slump Squeezes Enrollment at Private Schools

The 570-student St. Albans School in the District experienced a 4 percent increase in applications this year, and enrollment is steady. But aid is rising $300,000, to $2.8 million.

Admissions are up at Loudoun Country Day School, a 283-student campus in Leesburg, but more families are asking to pay their tuition in monthly installments, said Pam Larimer, admissions coordinator.

Leaders of Landon School and Sidwell Friends say their operations are as robust as ever.

"It hasn't eaten into our situation yet," said Bruce Stewart, head of Sidwell. "And I don't think it's eaten into Harvard or Princeton or Yale."

But enrollment is declining across a broad range of other private campuses. Archdiocese schools in Maryland and the District are losing a thousand students a year. Enrollment is down in the Diocese of Arlington to a lesser degree.

Data collected by the Maryland State Department of Education, the only state agency in the region that monitors private school enrollment, show that the share of students attending public school in the seven-county area reached 82.4 percent last fall, its highest level in 10 years.

At Flint Hill School, a 1,000-student campus in Fairfax County, applications rose from 510 to 560 this year. But school officials have struggled to translate interest into commitments.

"It is getting to be more difficult to get people to sign on the dotted line," said Admissions Director Pat Harden. "I think people are taking more time to decide. The economy is making people more nervous."

St. Andrew Apostle School in Silver Spring was packed for its January open house, fresh from winning the prestigious Blue Ribbon last year from the U.S. Department of Education. But as fall nears, much of that interest has evaporated. The school expects to enroll 410 to 415 students this fall, a loss of 100 students in four years.

"They were very interested, applied, were accepted, were coming," said Kathleen Kilty, the principal. "But when those first tuition bills went out . . . "

A few miles east, the independent Newport School announced last month that it would cease operations in the face of declining enrollment.

Founded by a former D.C. schoolteacher in 1930, Newport was among the first independent schools in the region to racially integrate and found a niche serving a majority-minority population. A 2001 bankruptcy hobbled the school. The current economic slump hastened its demise.

School leaders called a parent meeting in January, telling families that they needed commitments -- of students and future donations -- to carry on.

"We got zero," said Robin Payes, a trustee.