An influx of students is creating an interesting challenge for schools in the Lincoln County School District.

     At Monday night’s board meeting, Superintendent Terry Brister explained the schools are seeing an increase in enrollment and are sorting out issues that stem from that.

     “We’re basically just trying to get our nest settled,” said Brister.

     Brister also commented on the interest the school system is drawing.

     “We have a lot of people coming into our schools and a lot of people that want to come in,” he said. “Every school we’ve got has seen an increase in enrollment and they’re waiting at the doors to come in.”

     Though he did not have an exact number, Brister said he expects to see strong gains in enrollment at all four of the county schools.

     Due to that jump in enrollment, Brister said they’re working to get class sizes and bus routes equalized.

     Brister speculated the growth was due to good things going on at Lincoln County schools.

     “I hope it’s because we have a good environment, educational programs and facilities to offer,” he said. “Growth is a positive thing for the schools as long as we can accommodate everyone.”

     Elsewhere, Brister said the new gymnasiums being constructed at Enterprise and Bogue Chitto are coming along.

     “Construction is progressing well,” he said. “We’ve had good weather on the whole, even with the showers we’ve had recently.”

     A problem that arose from the construction on those two campuses was how it impacted parent pickup and drop-off. Brister said that has been solved.

     “I think we’ve got parent pickup fixed,” he said. “It may not be ideal, but I think we’ve got it fixed as well as we can for now.”

     Brister said the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office made some recommendations on how to re-route traffic on the campuses to better accommodate the parent pickup issue.

     There is a permanent plan in the future to make parent pickup even better. Brister said the school system plans to add a new road to the campuses at some point, but he did not give a timetable on when that would happen.

     The Lincoln County School Board’s next meeting will be pushed back a day to Sept. 4 due to the Labor Day holiday.