diff --git a/app/services/student_loader.rb b/app/services/student_loader.rb
index 052623e6..5caec7ec 100644
--- a/app/services/student_loader.rb
+++ b/app/services/student_loader.rb
@@ -6,9 +6,7 @@
 require 'csv'
 
 class StudentLoader
-  def self.load_data(filepath:, reinitialize: true)
-    destroy_students if reinitialize
-
+  def self.load_data(filepath:)
     File.open(filepath) do |file|
       headers = file.first
 
@@ -20,12 +18,6 @@ class StudentLoader
     end
   end
 
-  def self.destroy_students
-    SurveyItemResponse.update_all(student_id: nil)
-    StudentRace.delete_all
-    Student.delete_all
-  end
-
   def self.process_row(row:)
     races = process_races(codes: race_codes(row:))
     response_id = row['ResponseId'] || row['Responseid'] || row['ResponseID'] ||
diff --git a/lib/tasks/data.rake b/lib/tasks/data.rake
index 61245ab5..e11bfffd 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/data.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/data.rake
@@ -75,11 +75,14 @@ namespace :data do
   end
   desc 'load students'
   task load_students: :environment do
+    SurveyItemResponse.update_all(student_id: nil)
+    StudentRace.delete_all
+    Student.delete_all
     Dir.glob(Rails.root.join('data', 'survey_responses', '*student*.csv')).each do |file|
       puts "=====================> Loading student data from csv at path: #{file}"
       StudentLoader.load_data filepath: file
     end
-    puts "=====================> Completed loading #{Student.count} survey responses"
+    puts "=====================> Completed loading #{Student.count} students"
   end
 
   desc 'reset all cache counters'