The Bismarck School District expects to see a slight decline in enrollment over the next five years, leaving few worries for school officials, Superintendent Paul Johnson said.

Current projections show the district losing about 100 students by the 2008-09 school year. Johnson told school board members Monday night that he expects that decrease to have little impact on the district's ability to maintain its level of programming.

Johnson presented the information Monday night as part of a new law requiring districts to project enrollment and look at its effect on staffing, programming, space and taxes. Districts must present those findings at a public meeting before sending them to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction. The 2003 Legislature passed the law in response to statewide declines in enrollment.

According to recent state projections, the only schools expected to maintain their student numbers are in the Bismarck and Fargo areas.

"In very small school districts where enrollment is rapidly declining, there is a lot more interest in this," Johnson said. "In Bismarck or Fargo where the enrollment is changing hardly at all there isn't too much interest."

Those sentiments rang true Monday night as only four people sat in the audience. Three were district administrators.

Despite the anticipated decline in students, the district is faced with space crunches in elementary schools in north Bismarck, which will need to be addressed in the next two years, Johnson said.

Rapid residential development isn't expected to subside, and Miller, Centennial, Murphy, Pioneer and Prairie Rose elementary schools already would exceed capacity if they didn't have portables, district officials said.

Other district goals included replacing the current building used for career and technical classes and studying space needs for all-day kindergarten, which education groups in North Dakota are advocating to lawmakers. The district currently leases space at Bismarck State College for its career and technical education program. The lease expires in 2009 and the school board is looking to move because the building no longer meets the program's space needs.

The district is opening the report for public input and will make necessary adjustments before taking it for board approval. Once the board approves it, the report will be sent to DPI.

(Reach reporter Sheena Dooley at 250-8225 or sheenadooley@ndonline.com.)