St. Paul Public Schools is reporting an encouraging trend. Enrollment is up by about 400 students this school year compared to last year. It’s the first increase in enrollment for the district in about a decade.

Riverview Spanish/English Immersion School welcomed an additional kindergarten class this year, which is about 25 children.

“Super exciting,” said Principal Stivaliss Licona-Gervich.

The elementary school on the West Side provides instruction in both Spanish and English. It also offers an extended day for learning, which allows students to learn string instruments in the morning through a partnership with Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies.

“I want Riverview to be the place to go for all of our families and all of the families that are interested in being bilingual,” said Licona-Gervich.

She explained the increase in enrollment is the result of two years of hard work, which included updating the school’s name to include its dual immersion designation to advertise to families the bilingual education it offers. Licona-Gervich also attended community events and visited day cares to recruit families.

“To educate our families about being bilingual and what that does to your brain,” she said. “It not just opens your door to a job or any other things, it really helps you think in different ways and when you are bilingual or multilingual you are able to explore and experience the world in a very different way.”

Riverview is one of six schools the district targeted over the last year to boost enrollment, using pandemic-era federal funding. According to Director of Communications Erica Wacker, the district took a different approach through the Enrollment Project by marketing schools specifically.

“Education is a very crowded market,” she said. “What [is] seen typically is a family is not choosing St. Paul Public Schools, you’re choosing a school and you may be looking at two public schools, maybe a charter school.”

All but one of the schools targeted through the initiative saw a boost in enrollment. Riverview, for example, saw an enrollment increase of 16%. Txuj Ci Hmong Language and Culture Upper Campus had a 48% increase in enrollment, Highwood Hills had a 16% increase in enrollment, Cherokee Heights had a 9% increase, while Dayton’s Bluff had a 7% increase in enrollment. District data shows Hamline Elementary, however, saw a 7% decline in enrollment.

“Those schools that got that targeted budget, resources and attention to really growing enrollment and really telling their story, those are some of the schools that experienced growth this year,” said Wacker. “The programs that are seeing the most growth are really the programs that are language and culture.”

Aside from the Enrollment Project schools, East African Magnet school experienced a 58% increase in enrollment for its second year.

All of the data is preliminary until it’s submitted to the Department of Education at the end of the year.

Licona-Gervich hopes to keep building on the momentum.

“The West Side is a big part of who I am, it’s a big Latino community, I am Latina,” she said. “For me, just having the opportunity to have a part to lead this school for our students and our community is an incredible gift.”