Schools counting on turnout

Thousands of kids and their parents will flood Coeur d’Alene schools Tuesday to register for the coming school year, and administrators will be there, greeting new and returning students, answering questions and, most of all, counting.

“Tuesday is our telling day,” said Kathy Kuntz, principal of Atlas Elementary School.

The amount of state money a school district gets depends on the number of students. If fewer students register than anticipated, it could mean big cuts, like the program reductions the district saw midway through the last school year. If, however, more students register, that means more money.

“How important is the students showing up? It’s critical,” said Steve Briggs, business manager for the Coeur d’Alene School District.

But for district administrators and school principals, it’s a mixed bag.

The district predicts enrollment will remain about the same as last year. More kids might mean more cash from the state, but depending on where they enroll, it also could mean more classes and a scramble to find space for them.

That’s what’s happening at Atlas, where district predictions peg enrollment at 505 students, 30 more than last year. Thirty kids in the school’s attendance zone were bused to other schools last year – the first year the school was open – because of space constraints, but the district is hoping to squeeze them in at Atlas this year.

That means two more classes, which means a lot of reshuffling and rearranging. Though nothing will be finalized until after Tuesday’s registration numbers come in, Kuntz said she’s exploring a variety of options. One has a kindergarten class moving to a room currently used for special education programs, the special education programs moving to a workroom and the workroom – equipped with copy machine and paper cutters – sharing the teacher’s lounge.

“It’s the same old thing that every school in the country does when you get overcrowded. You find the space that you can use,” Kuntz said. “And I am worried about that, because it’s not going to be optimal space.”

But, she added, “nothing is cast in stone yet. Those numbers have to come in first, and then we can make the tough decisions.”

Built using money from a bond voters approved in 2002, Atlas is already at capacity. And, given the school’s proximity to the booming subdivisions on Atlas Road, that could be a problem.

It could mean restructuring attendance boundaries that were just adjusted for this coming year. That’s always a political and deeply emotional issue for parents and students, Kuntz said, but if lopsided enrollment continues, it may be the best choice. It all depends on how many students end up in school this year, and at which schools.

“People don’t move into the district exactly where we want them to,” Briggs said. “They have a tendency of moving where they want to live.”

Briggs doesn’t think the district will see any substantial growth anywhere because the high cost of housing is forcing families with school-age children into surrounding districts, among other factors. But even a shift of just a few students to schools across town can make things difficult for individual schools, as is seen at Atlas Elementary.

“It’s been my nemesis all summer – who do I move where?” Kuntz said.

It’s tough to predict how many new students will show up at which schools, Kuntz said, so the district is holding off on finding teachers for the two new Atlas classes until enrollment numbers show it’s necessary. A district hiring freeze means the teachers would come from another school, one predicted to have declining enrollment like Sorensen or Winton downtown. Or, depending on the numbers, everyone could just stay put.

Briggs said the district looks more to attendance numbers on the first week than to initial registration numbers because more students usually filter in during the first week. Once the first Friday of the school year passes, the district should have a good idea of what the rest of the year will look like, and whether officials should prepare for budget cuts, he said.

“We’re certainly anxiously waiting,” Briggs said.