I haven’t found the definitive data after ten minutes of googling. One problem is that the actual 2010 Census hasn’t yet been reported. This is the year that all elective bodies including the Duluth School Board will redraw their election districts to reflect the actual population. (Wouldn’t it be funny if I found myself redistricted into Ann Wasson’s District?)
This link flatly says that Duluth has lost population, 2,634 people to be exact from 2000 until 2010. (I think you can count on the City raising hell about this loss as it would mean less clout in the state legislature and Congress.) It is an extrapolation not an actual count. This is eleven people fewer than the school District’s reported loss of student-aged children.
Of course, the Duluth School District is not the same as the City of Duluth. Part of Duluth was cut out of the Duluth School District back in the 1960’s when Bob Mars was in his first seating on the School Board. I don’t recall the reason but it had something to do with the rest of the school board being put out by Charlie Bell’s father who sat on the School Board back then. They simply gave his precinct, including Duluth’s Bayview Elementary School, to the Proctor School District and got rid of their problem Board member. A few year’s ago this would have been a good research project for a Chuck Frederick story before he was demoted to the Editorial Board.
If we stopped looking here it would appear that Tawnyea’s figures show that we have lost more children in the past decade than the City of Duluth lost population. This would mean that the older population has been growing an unlikely possibility which would suggest that Duluth could be turning into an alternative to the Sun Belt for retirees.
The Duluth School District also includes several townships which more than make up for the lost Highland Precinct’s population. Its hard for me to believe that these outlying areas have lost population over the past decade.
So, assuming that Tawnyea’s figures are correct, the Pied Piper apparently piped a lot of our children off to live under the mountain with him. Who knew that his name was Keith?
