NATCHEZ — As of Thursday, the Natchez-Adams School District’s student enrollment is down nearly 200 students from what it was last year.

But administrators believe many of those students will show up soon.

Enrollment numbers have been low — but climbing — since school began Monday.

On the first day, only 2,734 students reported for classes compared to 3,162 students who showed up for the first day last year — a 428 student difference.

By Tuesday, enrollment was up to 3,197, down only 257 students from last year.

Thursday, enrollment was 3,382, down 183 students from last year.

Enrollment fluctuations are normal at the start of a school year, and the official recording of district enrollment isn’t required by the state for several months, but Superintendent Frederick Hill said the numbers were still a bit alarming.

Hill shared the data with the school board during their regular meeting Thursday.

“I obviously don’t like those numbers, but I think we made some progress throughout the week,” Hill said. “The numbers started going up daily, and I think they’ll continue to rise.”

Hill said he believed the primary reason for the decrease in students was parents simply not knowing school was back in session.

The district was late in finalizing and sending out its calendar for the school year because it was waiting on state-level decisions earlier this year.

Legislators passed a law in 2012 mandating that no school district in Mississippi start the school year until at least the third Monday in August. The law was set to go into effect during the 2014-15 school year.

Gov. Phil Bryant eventually signed a law in March negating the 2012 law. The new law allowed local school districts to choose their own start dates.

Hill said that back and forth between legislators and school officials didn’t allow the district to get out its calendar in a timely fashion.

“We were waiting on all that to happen, and then we started earlier than we did last year on top of that,” Hill said. “I’m not sure if some parents were still on vacation and thought it wasn’t time for school yet or what, but I think we’ve been able to get the word out there.”

Hill said district officials would continue monitoring enrollment numbers next week before taking any action.

“If we continue to see these low numbers this time next week, we’ll get with our truancy officers and see where we’re at,” Hill said. “Our goal is to obviously minimize that number as much as possible.”

Other than the lower-than-expected numbers, Hill told board members he felt all district schools had a great first day of school.

“I was nervous about going into some schools Monday morning just because you never know how things will go after summer vacation, but everything was right on track,” Hill said. “I walked into some classrooms at 8:30 a.m. expecting to see some managerial housekeeping stuff going on, but these teachers were teaching.

“I think that said a lot about the expectation levels we have set for these teachers and students that they’re already teaching lessons at 8:30 a.m. on the first day.”

Board member Thelma Newsome echoed Hill’s statements.

“I visited every school in the district Tuesday and Wednesday, and every school was having school as if they had been in session for a month or two,” Newsome said. “Everybody was doing what they should have been doing. It was just great to see.”

In other news from the meeting:

The district discussed the possibility of waiving the wait time in one of its policies in order to name the Natchez High School track after longtime track coach Henry “Doc” Woods.

The item was brought before the board last year after Woods died in February. Woods coached track and field for 43 years between Sadie V. Thompson, North Natchez and Natchez high schools and won 19 state championships in his time.

Hill and board members said at the time they needed to review the district’s policy that requires a three-year wait period before any school facilities are named after someone with “major contributions” to the district.

Hill brought the matter before the board again Thursday saying he had been asked about it recently and wanted to see where board members stood.

Newsome said she remembers why the required wait time was put in place.

“Every time something happened, the community was coming saying, ‘We want to do this or that,’” Newsome said. “I think we need to abide by what we did.”

The district’s policy also states the vote to name a facility after someone needs to be passed by a 5-0 vote.

Board member Benny Wright was absent Thursday, and board president Tim Blalock suggested they table the motion until all members were in attendance.

The board’s newest member, Cynthia Smith, said there was no need to wait.

“I’m going to save you some time because I’m going to vote against it,” Smith said. “I think if you start splitting hairs for different situations, you start stepping into issues.”

Board members collectively advised Hill not to bring the matter before the board for a formal vote.