ICSD Board of Education Addresses Enrollment Projections and Future Planning

ICSD Communications

January 16, 2026

At the January 13, 2026 Voting Meeting, the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Board of Education was presented with enrollment projections from the Cornell Population Center in the Brooks Institute for Public Policy. For ICSD Board members, this was our first introduction to local enrollment projections based on a resolution passed on October 22, 2024. The initial resolution requested research on trend predictions and feasibility recommendations relating to the district's “demographics, operations, and financial efficiencies.”

While the majority of the presentation focused on an anticipated 10-year decline in K-12 enrollment in the ICSD (a trend unfolding throughout New York State), the second-to-last slide of the presentation included possible economic impacts of school consolidations and grade reconfigurations. The ICSD Board of Education made it clear that we have no active plans for the consolidation or closure of any of our schools. If, in the future, the ICSD Board of Education were to consider the consolidation of any school(s), there would be many public discussions informed by data the board has not yet conceptualized or requested, let alone collected as of the January 13 meeting. We are disappointed in the attempts of a local media source to misrepresent the presentation or frame the conversation otherwise.

Respectfully,

The Ithaca City School District Board of Education

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