The construction of several new classrooms in multiple schools could not have come at a better time for the Cheney School District, considering it’s in the process of adding several classrooms due to the influx of students since school started this year.
School officials have added a last-minute kindergarten class at Sunset Elementary and are working on adding more core classes at Westwood Middle School to accommodate a surge of sixth-grade enrollment, Assistant Superintendent Sean Dotson said.
District Finance Manager Jamie Weingart presented new numbers to the school board at their Oct. 10 meeting, noting that the district is up 55 students in the month of September alone.
The district budgeted for 4,655 students for the 2018-2019 school year. About 4,732 began the year and 4,787 are currently enrolled.
“We’re seeing this most in the core classes that every student takes,” Dotson said. “It’s not enough just to add a science class, it’s about adding a science class in third period and finding the best person to teach it.”
At the moment, the district is looking at current staff that may be able to take on an additional class, though it’s possible it may have to hire new teachers if growth continues as it has been.
The rapid increase is cause for some concern as the district invests in capital projects to improve local schools and make more room. The project is meant to handle enrollment growth until 2028. “We’re trying to predict the future here,” Dotson said. “We’re right in the middle of that process.”
In the meantime, many classes are a little closer than usual to the maximum number of students allowed, Dotson said. That number ranges from 23 to 27 in elementary school depending on grade level and is around 30 at the secondary level.
“We’re trying to accommodate all our students while still figuring out what pressure the teacher can take on and how we can still make the class effective,” Dotson said. “It’s always challenging when you have more students than expected, but we have strategies in place to work through it.”
Westwood has grown so much that the district is partnering with the city of Airway Heights for a boundary review for the 2019-2020 school year in an effort to maintain neighborhood school proximity. The review will examine enrollment history, projection and trends and try to balance that data with school capacity.
Such a review could have an effect on which students automatically attend which school within the district next year.
Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)