For years, prevailing wisdom has held that people move to Zachary for the schools. And with the area’s population growing in recent years and several new subdivisions being proposed, many residents have become concerned about the potential strain this trend will put on local schools.
A recently completed demographic study commissioned by the Zachary Community School District, however, begs to differ.
It’s true that more people have moved into the district — but demographer Mike Hefner’s study found that many of them are older and do not have school-aged children. That means schools haven’t seen a large spike in enrollment.
Hefner presented these and other findings to the School Board at its Sept. 3 meeting.
He said the number of people living inside the boundaries of the district — which extend beyond Zachary city limits — grew by 23% between the 2010 and 2020 censuses. In 2022, it was estimated that 26,753 people resided within district lines.
“Your largest group that grew between 2017 and 2022 was your 65- to 74-year-old age group,” Hefner said. “That was followed by your 45- to 54-years-of-age age group. Those are the ones that typically move in when their kids are already through the school system. So they’re not bringing preK-12 students with them.”
He added: “This may become more and more of a retirement community — people looking to trade up, maybe scale down, get a nicer house but smaller square footage.”
This pattern could bode well for the school district.
Hefner’s study found that people seem to be moving to Zachary and staying put. Longer-term residents are more likely to invest in their community, including its schools, he said.
“If they’re going to stay here, they’re going to make sure the community is better for them and for their fellow citizens,” he said. “And that’s good for you as a school district, and I think it’s why you’ve been a high-performing school district for so many years.”
Because districtwide enrollment has been fairly steady, facility capacity should be adequate in the coming years, he said.
Zachary schools educated 4,880 children in 2010. As of last month, the district has 5,538 students.
“The thing that’s really unique about this district is your enrollment is not correlating with your increase in population or your increase in housing,” Hefner said.
In fact, he noted, “you are seeing some declines in enrollment, particularly some of those early years.”
Besides the increase in older residents without young children, some potential explanations for this include parents opting for private, parochial, charter and online schools as well as home study, Hefner said.
The number of Zachary-area residents working outside of East Baton Rouge Parish has risen in recent years, he said, so parents may be choosing to enroll their kids in schools closer to their workplaces. He pointed out that this employment shift also has changed commuting patterns in the area.