Enrollment in Chelsea schools is down by 35 students, Superintendent David Killips told school board members Monday night.

The good news? That's still 14 students more than Chelsea School District officials included when they drew up the budget for this school year. State funds are allocated on a per-student basis.

“We’re down to about 2,500," Killips said at the board meeting. "We were at 3,000 eight or nine years ago. We have only 144 students at the kindergarten level."

Killips told board members that he did not expect numbers to rise when enrollment is tallied for the annual fall count day Wednesday, even though officials are still seeing some movement with families entering or leaving the district.

Last year, state funds brought in $7,496 per pupil, Killips said. The per-pupil allocation has not yet been set for this year, he said.

He also announced the teacher/student ratios for the elementary grades: At the kindergarten level, the ratio is between 19 and 21 students per teacher. At the first grade level, the ratio is 19 to 24 students per teacher. Second grade is set at 22 to 24 students per teacher; third at 25 to 28, fourth grade at 24 to 26 and fifth grade at 26 to 27 students per teacher.

At Beach Middle School and the high school, the ratio averages out to 29 students to each teacher.

“There may be 35 students per class in one class and 13 in another, but we’re continuing to work on class size,” said Killips.