More students are attending Riverside-Brookfield High School this year than at any time since 1980, according to Principal/Superintendent Jack Baldermann. At the end of the first week of classes in the 2006-07 school year 1,490 students have enrolled at RB Baldermann said. That is an increase from the 1,414 students who attended RB last year.

The increased enrollment is a result of more students transferring in rather than a big increase in the size of the freshman class, said Baldermann.

“It’s a little bit of people transferring from private schools,” said Baldermann. “Most of them are moving from the surrounding area. The plurality are coming from Morton High School.”

A referendum recently failed in the Morton school district and extracurricular activities are facing cuts there.

Baldermann said that RB’s record of academic accomplishment and the publicity generated by a ranking in Newsweek magazines top 100 high schools probably played a part in the surge in transfers. In April, Newsweek ranked RB the 76th best high school in the nation and second in Illinois behind only Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. The Standard and Poor’s Corporation also recently recognized RB as an “academic outperformer.”

Those kinds of accolades make the school more attractive to parents in surrounding areas and to families moving into the Chicago area from out of town, said Baldermann. RB’s graduation rate has also increased in recent years, going from 91.5 percent in 2002 to 99 percent last year.

Baldermann expects enrollment to grow at bit more and then plateau in the coming years.

“We’ll continue to see some slight enrollment growth,” said Baldermann. “We expect to it to plateau around 1,600 or 1,650.”

RB, which is about to undergo a $63 million renovation and expansion, will have a capacity of slightly more than 1,700 students when complete, Baldermann said.

RB’s enrollment has doubled since the mid-1980s when the number of students fell to a low of 714, according to RB High School District 208 School Board President Larry Herbst. In 1996, RB had an enrollment of 925 students, according to figures provided by the school. RB went over the 1,000-student mark in 1999 and has steadily grown since then.

This year’s enrollment is not a record, however. In 1969 and 1970 more than 2,000 students attended RB in the current building, recalled Herbst, who was an RB student at the time.

As the enrollment has increased, RB’s per pupil expenditure has decreased in recent years. In 2004-05 RB spent $13,213 per pupil, but this year RB projects to spend $12,691 per pupil, according to figures provided by the school. In inflation-adjusted dollars, RB per-pupil expenditures will have decreased from $15,364 in 1996 to $12,691 this year, according to a District 208 handout.

As the enrollment increases the costs of running the school are spread over a greater number of students, Baldermann said.

The recent retirements of some veteran teachers who were replaced with younger teachers making less money also has helped to reduce per-pupil expenditures, Baldermann said.