Ripon Unified experienced a slight boost in enrollment numbers just shortly before the Winter Break.

According to the reporting period for the fifth month of the school year – from Nov. 27 through Dec. 22 – the district tallied 3,316 students from the five elementary school sites along with the high schools (Ripon High, Harvest High, and the Independent Study program).

That’s 22 more students from the previous month and added 105 compared to that of a year ago.

Ripon High had a total enrollment of 1,005 while Independent Study racked up 53 and Harvest High stood steady with 24 students.

At the elementary school sites, Ripona led the way with an enrollment of 472 students, followed by Park View (455), Ripon El. (441), Park View (439), and Weston (427).

As for attendance, Director of Student Services Lisa Mazza announced at Tuesday’s school board meeting that Harvest High held top honors for last month at 99.5 percent.

The district’s alternative education site earned the RUSD Best Monthly Attendance banner thanks to the overall effort for December.

One new teacher and four more substitute instructors were among the new hires listed at Monday’s Ripon Unified school board meeting.

Kristina Hansen was newest addition to the Ripon Elementary School teaching staff, according to the report by Human Resources Manager Krista Galvan.

She also listed seven retirements from the various the school sies and one resignation from Park View Elementary School.

Brianna Galvan, Delaney Hall, Hailey Nussbaumer, and Denise Overweg were brought on as certificated substitute teachers.

Veronica Ochoa is the new paraeducator at Ripona Elementary, with newly-hired Instructional Aide Kassandra Soto having split-duty assignments at Ripona and Colony Oak Elementary School.

Other new hires at Ripon Unified included Paraeducator Substitutes’ Aryanna Madrigal and Lindsey Youngberg, and Afterschool Assistant (Ripon Afterschool Program) Branden McCokm.