The superintendent of the Butler School District said he believes his district’s enrollment decline has leveled out.

Superintendent Brian White shared some comparative statistics about enrollment during Monday’s school board meeting.

In 2015, the district’s student body began falling at a rate that outpaces other districts in the county. But, White said, if one compares today’s numbers to figures from October of last year, the district has only a dozen less students. It appears, he reasons, that the shrinking has ceased.

“I do think we are starting to stabilize,” White said.

The board largely acknowledged a connection between the decline and 2015’s consolidation efforts which, among other changes, saw the district shutter four elementary schools and put them up for sale.

“The district had to consolidate, but we have to listen to our constituents,” White said. “We’re not done. We have some hard questions ahead of us. But we have to stop and listen. If we irritate all our constituents, we will continue to drop.”

The district’s leaders shared details of a planned event meant to do just that. On Oct. 23, two back-to-back meetings will be held at the Intermediate High School.

The first, which lasts from 4 to 6 p.m., will be a forum for community members to voice what the district’s priorities should be. Topics like class size, electives and technology will be discussed.

The second begins at 6 p.m. and will focus on the district’s various buildings. Participants will be asked to weigh in on which buildings’ maintenance should be prioritized, and which specific capital projects are worth pursuing.

School calendar

As for community input, the board also shared the results of a recent survey on the school calendar.

When asked for specific preferences about holiday lengths and start and end dates, parents and teachers lined up mostly in opposition to each other.

About 51 percent of teachers preferred a calendar that started four days before Labor Day weekend and has a two week winter break.

Parents were more deeply divided on the topic, with nearly equal groups splitting on the survey’s three options.

The largest group, at 36.8 percent, wanted a year that starts after Labor Day and has less than two weeks for winter break.

The next largest, with 34.2 percent, wanted school to start a week before Labor Day and have a two-week winter break.

The third, at 29 percent, wanted school to begin after Labor Day and have a two-week winter break.

The survey did produce one unified result: those polled all wanted school to end on the first Friday in June.