On Wednesday morning, the students at Brent Elementary School on Capitol Hill gave class presentations about their firefighter, shark and princess costumes. In the afternoon, they paraded to a neighboring park to the applause of their parents.
But in between, they took part in much more serious business: a head count by independent auditors that will help determine whether D.C. schools have stanched decades of enrollment decline, a development that many believe would have deep importance as a marker of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's changes.
"We made a big push" to get students into classrooms Wednesday, said Brent Principal Cheryl Wilhoyte. "We had several parents with ill children call in and say, 'When do you need them?' " Officials at several other schools called homes the night before auditors did counts at their schools to remind students to show up.
The counts have big implications for the system. Enrollment in traditional D.C. public schools stood at 106,156 in 1979. Last year it was just 44,681. It has dropped every year in between, except for 1992, as parents moved to the suburbs or enrolled their children in charter schools.
Rhee is aiming to stop the bleeding, and this year she might have succeeded: Preliminary figures show that enrollment is up, to 45,322. But that number will be measured against the audit firm's count, which is being conducted, school by school, over the next few weeks.
The numbers at each school affect how many educators principals can hire, as well as how much money they have to spend on materials and the basics of teaching. Schools receive $8,945 to $11,629 per student in D.C. funds, depending on grade level, as well as additional federal dollars, most of which are determined by need. Under-enrolled schools risk being stripped of staff, as some were during layoffs earlier this month, or being shut down.
At Brent, enrollment has grown from 247 last year to 277 this year, according to preliminary numbers. Schools with enrollments of 250 or more get extra staff resources for amenities such as art, music and gym.
Wilhoyte, formerly superintendent of the Madison, Wis., public schools, said the waiting list of kids who wanted to get into the school swelled to 350 this year from 30 the previous year.
"It's come a long way," said Brent PTA President Daniel Holt, who has sent his children to the school for four years. Enrollment ballooned after a neighborhood group stepped in to spruce up the building and help the teachers. "It's a desirable school," he said.
Three auditors came to the school Wednesday. First they reviewed the school's attendance records. Then they counted the students -- twice by head, once by name -- and placed reading "I Count!" along with the child's name on each of their chests. Students who were asleep at nap time got the stickers on their backs.
"I want to make sure everyone gets a sticker, so when I call your name, just raise your hand, okay?" said Taleeya Green, one of the auditors from the firm Thompson Cobb Bazilio & Associates. Students who wanted to move the stickers to their sleeves, their eyes or the floor were gently corrected. Green said the stickers helped prevent double counts.
The final, audited results will come out in the first quarter of next year.
Educators from charter schools said it would be promising if D.C. public schools stabilized.
"That has to be considered a good sign," said Robert Cane, executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a charter advocacy organization. "We definitely do not look at the 45,000 kids [in traditional public schools] and say they could be charter students."
Cane has reason for celebration himself. According to an unaudited count announced this month, charter enrollments increased 9 percent from last year, to 27,953 students. That means about 38 percent of public school students in the city attend charter schools.
At Brent, efforts to boost enrollment and attendance seem to have succeeded. "Our parents completely mobilized," Wilhoyte said. If Rhee gets her way, more and more students will wear those stickers every year.