“We are increasing our numbers,” said Principal Bruce Hartley.

He said that over the last four years, enrollment at the school has grown from about 75 students to more than 100 students.

He attributed part of the increase to the state government’s Education Savings Accounts, which permit some state tax money to be used for private school tuition. The accounts provide about $7,600 to each qualifying student enrolled in an accredited private school.

“That has helped us,” Hartley said. “Also word of mouth and being able to help our preschool families feel a bit more connected to the rest of the school.”

-Messenger file photo
-Messenger file photo

He said parents sometimes view preschool as separate from the rest of their child’s education, and they will enroll the child at St. Paul for preschool but send them somewhere else for kindergarten and later grades.

To connect the preschool families with the rest of St. Paul, preschoolers have been invited to chapel services with the older students and some all-school events, such as an upcoming picnic for Lutheran Schools Week, have been held.

“There’s just a lot of different things that we’re doing to make the preschool families more connected,” Hartley said.

One of the most obvious results of having a bigger student body is that the third- and fourth-grade classes have been separated. Previously, the third- and fourth-graders were in the same classroom with the same teacher. Now they are in separate rooms with separate teachers.

St. Paul students are now being taught computer coding at an earlier age.

Hartley said each student is assigned a computer starting in kindergarten. Now the third- and fourth-graders are being taught some coding. Instruction in coding continues through eighth grade, which is the highest grade level at the school.

St. Paul Lutheran School was established in 1863, about 10 years after Fort Dodge became a city. A new school building was constructed in 1895. The current school building at 1217 Fourth Ave. S. was built in 1950.