Cheney Public Schools enrollment continues to grow, with actual full-time equivalent counts so far exceeding what the district budgeted for back in June.
The increase carries with it challenges, mainly where to put students in overcrowded schools without creating too much disruption. So far, much of that has taken place at the elementary school level and with the three K-5 schools outside of Cheney.
Enrollment figures for September from the district put FTEs at 4,438 students, 78 more than budgeted for in 2016-2017. October figures released last week show district FTEs at 4,487, a growth of 49 more students since the previous month.
The district-wide average for the 2015-2016 school year was 4,320.
“We’re up 167 from last year,” Kassidy Probert, the district’s director of finance, said. “That’s 4 percent this year over last year. Pretty significant growth.”
That growth is paid for by the state, but via several different formulas that include factors such as teacher, staff and student mixtures. Probert said a basic number for that payment is $6,401 per FTE.
There’s a condition, however. From September through December, the state pays the district only for the budgeted FTEs. From January through August, Olympia will pay for the actual FTEs the district sees in enrollment.
Most of the district growth is happening in the elementary schools outside Cheney: Sunset in Airway Heights along with Snowdon near the Fairways and Windsor further east on Hallett Road. According to the September FTE counts, Sunset was 34 students over 2015-2016 enrollment, 420-386, while Snowdon was 16 over, 445-461, and Windsor was 26 over, 504-478.
The increased number of FTEs wasn’t spread evenly over each school, but rather occurred at specific grade levels. As a result, Associate Superintendent Sean Dotson said some kindergarten students, along with some second- and third-graders at Snowdon, which is at capacity, were sent to Windsor.
At Sunset, the overload was with fourth- and fifth-graders, who have subsequently been bused to Snowdon, which has capacity at that grade level. That capacity doesn’t necessarily come from a physical space aspect, but more along the lines of class sizes in conjunction with staffing levels.
Dotson said across the district, the staffing level is balanced for the enrollment being seen, mainly because Cheney had an excess of teachers to call on despite a state-wide teacher shortage. The district was able to position teachers to adjust to the growth without having to go out and hire more at the beginning of the school year.
“We’ve left ourselves enough capacity to grow, and not go beyond what we were staffed for,” Dotson said.
Dotson added some grade levels were full, and in some cases exceeding state class-size targets determined by teacher-to-student ratio formulas. Other grade levels were within those targets.
Cheney was also exceeding enrollment numbers at the middle and high school levels. September figures indicated both Cheney and Westwood middle schools were a combined 22 students over 2015-2016 numbers, 1,035-1,023, with the 34 more students at Westwood countered by 12 fewer students at Cheney.
At Cheney High, enrollment was 1,161 — 42 over last year’s September numbers. October’s increases were fewer and more balanced, with Salnave Elementary School showing the largest increase with 12 more FTEs, bringing it to 363 total, 13 more than 2015-2016.
If the enrollment increase continues, and past trends indicate that’s probable, the district will have to begin looking at a number of items. The school board is already evaluating a potential third running of a facilities bond to provide more classrooms and other modifications at the high school along with Sunset and Windsor.
Superintendent Rob Roettger said they will also have to look at how they are making their enrollment projections so they can “plan as accurately as possible for future space and staffing needs.”
“(Right now) It seems like our growth is outdoing our projections,” he said.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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