The Conejo Valley Unified School District staff has released this year's enrollment numbers, revealing surprising dives in upper grades and an unexpected increase in kindergartners.

Dep. Superintendent Jeff Baarstad presented the board with preliminary numbers based on how many students are now enrolled in the district's schools compared to last year.

CVUSD, as well as many districts in California, have experienced declining enrollment. In the local area, dwindling enrollment has been blamed on the difficulty young families have in finding affordable housing in the Conejo Valley, facing steep home prices in the midst of a struggling economy.

Elementary school numbers have fallen by 137, from 9,049 to 8,912, which was expected, Baarstad said. Within that number there is some good news: There are more than 1,400 kindergartners, a higher number than the district has seen in years.

However, the numbers that came in from middle and high schools were surprising.

"We expected a drop of about 100 and 70 students in middle school and high schools (respectively)," Baarstad said. "We saw greater numbers than we expected. . . . It's discouraging."

Middle school enrollment is down 155 students, from 4,941 to 4,786. There are 178 fewer high school students, down to 7,269 from 7,447.

The district has seven more special education students, up from 479 to 486.

Total enrollment is down nearly 500, from 21,960 to 21,477.

According to principal projections, the district was expecting to have 21,716 students enrolled. However, consultants had predicted 21,491, only 14 more students than actually showed up to school in the first few weeks.

"There is some good news here," Baarstad said. "(Kindergarten enrollment) is going up a little more quickly than we thought it would."

To attract more parents to the district, a junior kindergarten pilot program was established this year and has brought in about 60 additional students.

Projections were released a bit earlier than usual; district staff generally wait two months into the school year to analyze the numbers.