More students than expected

An initial surge in the number of students at the beginning of the school year sent Valley school districts scrambling to hire teachers to handle the load. In official student counts released in October, the districts seem to have stabilized without having to add more staff.

Central Valley has seen a large surge in special-education students this year, up 114 in September compared to last year. The number settled to 110 for October’s count. “We’ve had a number of intensive kids move in,” said Jacque Johnson, while existing students have stayed put. “The impact seems most felt at the preschool and elementary level.”

The district has had to do a bit of juggling with students and teachers to make the higher numbers work. The district hired 3.5 full-time equivalent teachers at the beginning of the school year, but none for special education. “We did our hiring in the summer,” Johnson said. “We’re not hiring at this point, but that could change.”

Overall, the district’s enrollment in October was 11,791 FTE students, compared to the projected enrollment of 11,640. Some students, including 42 at Greenacres Middle School, are still being overflowed to other schools.

For the first time, a portable classroom building has been put in at Central Valley High School to deal with the higher numbers there. It was taken from Liberty Lake Elementary, which has actually seen a drop in the number of students. “Their enrollment has gone down a little bit, but it’s still a full building,” said district spokeswoman Melanie Rose. “The need was greater at Central Valley (high school).”

Jan Hutton, executive director of finance, estimates that the district will average 11,700 FTE students this year “if we follow the typical historical trend. We do experience attrition during the year.”

Doing the annual budget is a struggle for school district’s every year. If a district guesses too high on the expected number of students, it will have teachers it doesn’t need on contract. It is better to guess low and hire new staff if needed.

West Valley also added teachers at the beginning of the school year to deal with unexpected growth, one position at Centennial Middle School and one at West Valley High School. The district had 3,691 FTE students in October compared to 3,638 in October of 2007. The district had set its budget based on an estimated 3,587 students.

East Valley is seeing more students than it planned for, but less than at this time last year. There were 3,988 FTE students in October compared to 4,015 last year. The 2008-2009 budget was based on 3,977 students.

“Our kindergarten classes have been larger for the last two years,” said Jan Beauchamp, assistant superintendent for academic affairs. “That’s always very encouraging for our enrollment.”

East Valley is doing some limited busing to make students balance out. Some fifth-graders from Trentwood Elementary are being bused to Trent Elementary. The ECAP program at Trent was moved to Trentwood, making more room for full-day kindergarten classes at Trent. With the shuffling going on, the district hasn’t had to make any new hires. “We had anticipated our staff needs well,” she said.

Enrollment in the Freeman School District is also up over budget. In September and October the district averaged 918 FTE students, which is 19 over the budgeted number of 899 FTE students.