Despite hundreds of sprouting houses, school district faces falling enrollment

MONTPELIER, Idaho – Despite being surrounded by a booming housing market, a school district in southeastern Idaho faces cuts because of a lack of students.

The problem, officials say, is that many of the home buyers are part-time residents from outside the Bear Lake School District who are purchasing second homes.

The district has seen enrollment numbers fall from 1,852 students in 1996-97 to 1,206 for the current school year, a decline that has officials considering closing two schools.

But during that same period, as many as 500 new homes have been built in the area, Superintendent Cliff Walters said.

An Idaho Transportation Department study predicted that by 2025 Bear Lake County will have 1,624 new homes but only 548 will be occupied by full-time residents.

Next month, area voters will decide between reducing the number of teachers and programs, or closing two older schools and moving the remaining students to other schools in the district. The May 15 school district election asks whether Bear Lake Middle School and Georgetown Elementary School should be closed.

“If we don’t (close the schools) we’re not going to be able to financially hang on to all the programs we have,” Walters said. “A lot of people from Georgetown don’t want to see their schools close. I don’t want to close the schools. I just don’t see how to financially keep them open.”

Tara Wells is among parents concerned by the prospect.

“(The school) is kind of the heart of the community,” said Wells, who has two children in Georgetown. “If they take it, our community is going to die, I think. I realize the money is getting tight. I think if they could figure out how to keep it open, it would help people moving here. It’s something that kind of catches them, that there’s a school nearby.”

She and her husband, Kevin Wells, are also concerned about longer bus rides their children would have to take.

“If they’re going to centralize the district, that ought to be in Montpelier, not haul the students off to Paris,” Kevin Wells said. “I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the taxpayers. Montpelier is already facing a dead downtown district.”

If voters do decide to close the two schools, Bear Lake Middle School students would be sent to Paris Elementary School, which would be made into a middle school. Most of the classrooms at Paris are vacant.

Georgetown and Paris students would be sent to AJ Winters School in Montpelier.

With student numbers predicted to continue to decline, Bear Lake Middle School Principal Bruce Belnap said he doesn’t see any choice but to close the two schools.

“As a practical solution, it seems sensible to me to fully utilize the facilities that we’ve got,” he said.

Tamara Fisher, a parent who serves as a volunteer in the district, agrees.

“If education takes any more hard hits, I don’t foresee them continuing to be able to be competitive with kids from other schools with programs that are better funded,” she said.