Enrollment rises in CdA schools

Enrollment is up in the Coeur d’Alene School District, and a committee will look at adjusting attendance zones this year to prevent overcrowding and reduce forced transfers in the coming years.

About 145 more students are attending Coeur d’Alene schools this year as of Sept. 14, but it’s not the number of them that’s the issue – it’s where they’re living.

“We’re seeing that the northwest portion of our district continues to have the greatest amount of growth pressure,” said Steve Briggs, district business manager. “We could even see a decline in enrollment and still have the same problems.”

Redrawing the boundaries now to shift more students to the southern schools can prevent last-minute forced transfers that arise when schools get too crowded, Briggs said.

“It’s never totally easy for these changes, but the kids seem to adapt quickly,” he said. “It’s very emotional … but it’s also unavoidable. There’s just not much we can do.”

This will be the second time since spring 2006 that attendance zones will be adjusted to address the lopsided student populations in the north and south sides of town. If the number and location of schools remain the same, it could happen again – depending on how many families move to town or across town.

Turning the downtown Sorensen Elementary School into a magnet school for the arts and humanities helped overcrowding in the north by drawing students from those schools, but it wasn’t enough to solve the problem. The district has bused kids from the north side of town to low-enrollment southern schools like Bryan Elementary School for several years.

“Until we build another school on the east side, that’s probably going to happen,” Briggs said.

The district’s long-range planning committee will discuss enrollment issues at its meeting Monday and could recommend whether to ask voters to approve a tax levy for school construction. The last school construction levy, rejected in March 2006, was meant to address lopsided enrollment by building a new school on the north side of town, among other projects.

All elementary schools except Fernan, Hayden Meadows and Winton have more students this year. Atlas Elementary School in Hayden saw the biggest surge in students – 574 students were enrolled as of last week, 50 more than last year.

Principal Scott Freeby said the school is at capacity. Rooms built as special education classrooms or reading rooms have been converted to classrooms to house the extra kids, and art classes are being taught in the cafeteria.

“Which isn’t what you’d hope to do, but our teacher is making the best of it,” Freeby said. “It’s just growing pains.”

Together, the two high schools are down by about 60 students.

Lakes Middle School saw the biggest jump in enrollment of the three middle schools. Principal Chris Hammons said the 60 extra students mostly come from the attendance zone change approved in May 2006.

Enrollment can cause financial problems for school districts because state funding is tied to the number of students. Fewer students mean less money, and over-projecting enrollment can lead to big budget cuts like the $2.1 million slashed in 2006. That won’t be the case this year – enrollment was about 90 students higher than the district predicted, meaning more state money than expected.

“There were no surprises,” Briggs said.

And there shouldn’t be any when the attendance zone committee begins meeting. Though a few members come and go each year, the core committee has experience with zone changes and a standard process for making them, Briggs said.

Parents make up the bulk of membership, and each school is represented. Public forums are a standard part of the process, and the committee considers a number of proposals before recommending one to the school board, which has final approval.

Students affected by the changes are given opportunities to tour their new buildings before school begins.