West Valley enrollment jumps 8.8 percent

Todd Fiske long has maintained that if he could handpick new students at West Valley School, he could squeeze in a lot more kids.

But new students rarely, if ever, conveniently correspond with classrooms that have space. Instead one or two grades see an influx of several students, crowding classes already rapidly running out of room.

West Valley expects 471 students when the school year begins today, up from last spring’s 433 students, Fiske said. That’s an 8.8 percent increase. Of those 38 new students, about 20 are in fourth or fifth grade.

Because of the growth in those grades, West Valley has created a fourth- and fifth-grade combined classroom in addition to its two fourth-grade and two fifth-grade classes. The combination class will take over an existing classroom, and what was a computer lab has been transformed into a fourth-grade room.

It isn’t a perfect solution, Fiske, the district’s superintendent, acknowledged. The school will feel the loss of its one stationary computer lab particularly when students take Measures of Academic Progress tests three times a year.

At the stationary lab, a teacher could have each student logged in and ready to go at a computer by the time classes arrived for testing, Fiske said. Now students will have to boot up laptop computers on one of West Valley’s three portable labs, known as “cows” (computers on wheels).

The district has had two portable labs for the last few years, Fiske said. Each unit has 25 laptops, a printer and, thanks to their wireless capabilities, connect directly to a classroom’s interactive whiteboard.

The computers in the stationary lab were distributed throughout the school, largely in primary-grade classrooms, Fiske said, and the district bought a third portable lab for about $40,000. Money for the “cow” came out of year-end technology dollars and some federal one-time-only stimulus money, he said.

But the positives outweighed any inconvenience or cost incurred in losing a stationary lab, Fiske said.

“We will be able to do more instruction with needed space in the building. We’re busting at the seams,” he said.

West Valley is Flathead County’s fastest-growing public school district. Enrollment has increased by 144 students — 44 percent — since 2000. Much of that growth has happened over the last two years, despite the recession. This year’s enrollment is up 16.9 percent from fall 2008’s 403 students.

School officials had hoped to make room for future growth by building an 18,000-square-foot

 middle-school wing. But the community rejected the district’s $3.5 million bond request in June, with 61.6 percent of the 1,100 votes cast in the election against it.

The school board is searching for a new solution, Fiske said.

Trustees are discussing everything from asking voters to approve a much smaller bond issue, which would allow West Valley to put up portable classrooms, to using federal stimulus money to build a single classroom, as Kila and Evergreen schools did over the summer.

Neither option would solve West Valley’s space crunch for long, but Fiske said he is hopeful the district might be able to “Band-Aid it.”

The only other available space at the school is the stage, located next to where students eat lunch in four different shifts.

Even with the door closed, a stage classroom would be noisy during lunch, Fiske said, which would make concentrating on schoolwork a challenge for students and teacher alike.

Climbing enrollment is creating problems outside West Valley’s walls as well. The bus routes, which West Valley added in 2008, already are stretched thin.

“It’s real difficult. With the growth on five routes, we are just really busy,” Fiske said.

The buses are so full that some West Valley children might not be able to ride any longer. Buses can only safely and legally carry a certain number of children, and priority will be given to students who live farther from the school.

“We will have to tell parents that if you’re a rider and you are three miles [from the school] or closer, there’s a chance you’ll get bumped,” Fiske said. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Already most of the district’s 23 out-of-district students don’t ride the bus because there simply isn’t room, he said. And if enrollment continues to grow, there’s a chance there may no longer be room for out-of-district students at the school at all.

Eight of this year’s new students live outside the West Valley district, Fiske said. He was unable to grant several more requests from out-of-district families because classes in certain grades already were full.

Those families whose children were accepted know that just because they are at West Valley this year doesn’t guarantee them a spot in the future, Fiske said.

Even without out-of-district students, West Valley would be full. When its 55 employees are factored in, the building is as full as it can be. It still meets fire safety codes, Fiske said, but with little room to spare.

Fiske only foresees more growth in the future, which means something will have to be done to squeeze in more students.

“We can’t keep sustaining this type of growth,” he said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.