Sending her two youngest children off to school this week was not a big deal for Cathy Casey, whose 5-year-old twins, Emma and Will, started kindergarten at Hawthorne School in Elmhurst. 

“I’m not really sad. It’s so fun to see them make new friends and go to the same school their siblings went through,” said Casey who has another child in middle school and one in high school.

Students throughout Elmhurst returned to school over the last two weeks, and public school districts and parochial schools are reporting their enrollment figures, as well as introducing some new facilities and programs to parents and students.

Enrollment on Aug, 23, the first day of school  at Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205, which includes Hawthorne School, was 8,190, said Melea Smith, a district spokesperson. That’s up from 8,140 in 2009. 

The number of students held steady compared to last year at Salt Creek Elementary School District 48, which has 491 students. 

Enrollment at Immaculate Conception High School in Elmhurst is 350, an increase of ten over 2009.

“Everybody is getting situated and all the sports programs are starting this week,” said Nancy D’Amore, director of communications. 

One of the new programs at the school is a boy’s lacrosse team, D’Amore said.

At Immaculate Conception Grade School, bigger changes are underway.

The school is completing construction on a new playground, a facility it had not had previously.

“It’s one of the things we’ve been dreaming of for years,” said Susan McCoyd, director of development. “We used to close off Arthur Street for recess.”

Because of a labor strike over the summer, the playground is not expected to be finished until after Labor Day. In the meantime, the children are spending their recess in Wilder Park, which is nearby.

This also is the first year the school, with 540 students in pre-school through 8th grade, has an all-day kindergarten.

“It filled up immediately,” McCoyd said.

At Timothy Christian Schools, which serves kindergarten through 8th grade, the enrollment is 1,085, which school officials said is not a big change over last year.

“We didn’t have a gain, but we didn’t have a loss,” said Rudy Gesch, director of marketing. “We’d been on a five-year growth pattern. The biggest reason families left is because of the recession.”

Ten students at Trinity High School will be coming from abroad this year. Gesch said the school’s World View program will have students from China, South Korea, Denmark and Thailand staying with host families for the school year.

The school also has renovated its athletic fields with new bleachers and a press box.