Some schools carrying bigger loads

A white board in the main office at University High School looks like a complex puzzle made up of red, blue, orange and green magnets.

Move one piece of the rainbow, and chaos could erupt.

The board represents the master schedule that helps juggle nearly 1,800 students in and out of classes each day. Each magnet is one class, and most are full.

“We’re bursting at the seams,” said Principal Daryl Hart. “There’s one period a day where we are using almost every room that we have.”

Like many Central Valley schools, U-Hi is dealing with a districtwide enrollment increase of almost 3 percent this year.

Based on an Oct. 1 enrollment figures, the Central Valley School District – Spokane County’s second-largest district – had 308 more students walk through the doors this year than last, with the equivalent of 11,087 full-time students.

“Typically, we’ve seen a 1 percent increase per year,” said Jan Hutton, the district’s business manager. “Sometimes we have bubbles of larger classes of students, and we will be looking very closely to see if this is just one of those bubbles moving through or if this is truly our new trend.”

Spokane County’s largest district, Spokane Public Schools, was down the equivalent of 352 full-time students from last year, bringing its number to 29,399.

Enrollment trends at other Spokane Valley schools have been mixed.

East Valley has continued to see a drop in enrollment, while West Valley’s student count has remained level, gaining only 11 students this year.

West Valley’s student count was the equivalent of 3,537 full-time students.

East Valley is down 90 students, with the equivalent of 4,172 full-time students this year.

Enrollment in the district has steadily declined, partly because laid-off Kaiser employees continue to leave the area to look for work, said Jan Beauchamp, assistant superintendent for operations.

“But our kindergarten classes are booming,” Beauchamp said. Trent Elementary welcomed 91 new kindergarteners this year.

“It’s a sign of future growth, so we’re optimistic,” Beauchamp said.

Enrollment is second to test scores as one of the most important issues for school districts. The student count is how the district figures out how much money they will receive from the state, and how many teachers it needs to fill the classrooms.

Long-term enrollment trends factor into decisions about building new schools, and shuttering old ones.

Central Valley school officials were meeting Wednesday to discuss long-range facility needs of the district, which includes the possibility of building two new schools at the district’s east end.

Voters rejected a $25 million bond levy in 2003 to build a new middle school in Liberty Lake to deal with continued growth in that area. Liberty Lake Elementary and Greenacres Elementary are expected to reach capacity by 2008.

Liberty Lake has the equivalent of 653 full-time students this year, and a head count of 717. The capacity for the school is 749.

“We’re getting pretty close to full,” said Principal Linda Uphus.

Students are divided into four lunch periods, and must exit out of separate doors to alleviate congestion after school.

Also new this year is separate drop-off and pickup areas for parents and buses.

Similar problems plague the Mead School District in north Spokane County, where the elementary schools are experiencing tremendous growth.

Two years ago, Mead began to choke off the influx of students who chose to leave their school district to join Mead schools. The ability to enroll in another school district is handled on an annual basis. In 2002, 253 students were told they had to remain in their own district.

“That’s been a difficult process,” said Mead Superintendent Steve Enoch.

Uphus said a handful of first- and fourth-graders are bused to other nearby elementary schools from Liberty Lake, because the school doesn’t have room for them.

“That is a real unpleasant phone call to make,” Uphus said. “To tell a parent who just bought a new house, sorry.”