Spokane schools have class flow problem

Students are leaving Spokane Public Schools at a rate nearly double district projections, which has raised concerns in the county’s largest district.

At the same time, surrounding districts like Mead to the north, Central Valley to the east and Post Falls in Idaho are seeing upticks in student populations.

“It’s disturbing to have a decrease. It’s more disturbing if you don’t manage it,” said Neil Sullivan, Spokane Public Schools executive director of finance.

For the past several years, Spokane Public Schools had budgeted for student populations to drop about 300 a year. A surprise came this month when the district projected a decrease of 350 full-time equivalent students, but 650 failed to show. That puts an early student estimate at 28,759.

In Washington, public schools are funded by the number of students who enroll per district. Each student brings in more than $4,400. With 300 more students leaving than anticipated, Spokane Public Schools could potentially lose as much as $1.3 million more than planned.

A committee is looking for answers regarding the unexpected drop. One of the reasons may be people moving out of Washington to find jobs, Sullivan said.

Statewide, districts take an official count on Oct. 1 each year.

Birth rates had indicted that kindergarten students would start increasing this year. That didn’t happen in Spokane.

“The student population just doesn’t do what you expect it to do,” Sullivan said.

There were enrollment decreases in all Spokane middle schools except Salk. Ferris and Shadle Park high schools each had about 40 students less than projected. Rogers saw an increase of 47 students.

By no means is Spokane Public Schools seeing empty hallways. Eleven elementary schools were forced to transfer students to neighboring schools with more room this fall.

Also losing students is East Valley School District, which saw a slide of 100 students to around 4,000, according to preliminary counts. That’s about what district officials expected.

“We’ve experienced a steady decline for the past seven years,” said Richard Cook, East Valley School District business manager.

While the number of students has declined in Spokane Public Schools, the population of the city has grown by 3,000 since 2000. By comparison, the county has grown by 15,000 people. Only one out of every six new people arriving in the county since 2000 has ended up living within Spokane city limits, said Avista’s chief economist Randy Barcus.

“Unless I’m mistaken, there hasn’t been a birth dearth in our community. Perhaps all the Spokane people with kids have moved to Post Falls, along with all the new jobs there,” Barcus said.

The Post Falls School District saw a 5 percent increase to 5,289. That’s a 17 percent jump from the 2000-2001 school year.

Other growing districts including Nine Mile Falls and Central Valley, which are planning to ask voters to fund additional buildings and remodels.

Nine Mile Falls School District saw a 4.5 percent increase to the equivalent of 1,636 students. The district had been seeing growth of about 1 percent a year.

The district has grown so much in past years that out-of-district transfers were turned away this year.

The Mead School District was up almost 2 percent and had to turn away out-of-district students who wanted to transfer in, said Wayne Leonard, executive director Business Services for Mead.

In the Spokane Valley, Central Valley School District is nearing 12,000 students with an additional 385 students.

While Central Valley’s growth is primarily due to a staggering amount of new home construction – more than 2,000 homes are planned in the Greenacres area – some of the growing pains are due to changing demographics in some neighborhoods.

“Younger families are coming to buy homes previously owned by empty nesters,” said Jan Hutton, Central Valley business manager.

In the smaller districts, Cheney School District is up again for the second year, after several years of enrollment decline. The district is up more than 70 students, a 2 percent increase to 3,400.

Deer Park School District saw a 129-student increase, a 6 percent bump to 2,169 students.