NATCHEZ – They never made firm predictions, but their rough estimates were flat wrong.

As of Thursday morning, 401 evacuee children had enrolled in the Natchez-Adams public schools, and more were still coming.

Early numbers tossed around for the school district danced from 50 to 200.

And a 401-student enrollment jump means change.

Superintendent Anthony Morris told the school board Tuesday that they would be looking at hiring a new teacher at Frazier Primary School and possibly new ones at Robert Lewis Middle School and Natchez High School.

“Our concern in terms of space and teacher load is at Frazier,” he said. “At Natchez High, social studies and English are running very close. We may have to increase in those two areas, if not more.”

At RLMS, Principal Bettye Bell said the school might have to switch from a six-period day to a seven-period day to reduce the number of students in each class.

The majority, 385, of the new students are from Louisiana. Only the remaining 16 are from instate.

Morris said the district is still waiting for word on money that may or may not accompany the new students.

“The state of Louisiana has released forms to get an accurate count of the number in Mississippi so they can start looking at sending funds,” he said. “Mississippi is doing the same.

“We don’t have the answers to every question we want to know about this whole process, but each day that goes by we get more information.”

The school board gave the district permission to purchase emergency school supplies and uniforms without going through the typically bidding procedure.

The district is still asking for donations of uniforms and underwear. To donate call 601-445-2800.

The district was unable to buy the standard amount of fuel for school buses in the days after the hurricane, Morris said, but the supply availability has been getting better. The board also authorized emergency purchases of fuel.

School district employees have been working overtime to provide all the meals for residents of area Red Cross shelters.

“All of our employees have really stepped up and helped out,” Morris said. “We have had to increase the hours of those workers, but we’ve been told to keep track of expenses to be reimbursed.”

The school board also gave the superintendent permission to request a waiver for the five days of school missed due to the hurricane last week. The request will have to be approved by the State Board of Education. If approved, the district would not have to make up the days.

Board member Johnny Dale questioned whether the lost days would hurt the academic performance of the students.

“Any deviation will affect us somewhat,” Morris said. “But we don’t think it would be significant enough to affect it tremendously.”