Flathead County school enrollment remains steady while two rural schools grapple with increases

After Flathead County public schools bounced back from pandemic-related enrollment declines in 2021, the needle barely moved in 2022.

Public school enrollment in Flathead County underwent a 1% increase from last year, according to the 2022 Statistical Report of Schools. The percentage represents an additional 145 K-12 students, bringing total enrollment in the valley’s public schools to 15,268.

However slight the increase, it continues an upward trend over the past 10 years with public schools adding 1,597 more students or a 12% change.

The annual report is compiled by the office of the Flathead County Superintendent of Schools using numbers from an official fall enrollment count taken annually in October. Enrollment counts are significant in regard to school district funding with a direct tie to the amount of state funds received per student. More students equate to more money for schools. Even slight changes in enrollment can impact small schools in a big way.

There are 10,546 students attending public elementary and middle schools. The majority of schools at this level experienced increases with a few rural school districts seeing the biggest gains including Deer Park and Cayuse Prairie, both of which are looking at options to potentially expand their facilities.

Evergreen, Fair-Mont-Egan, Kalispell, Somers-Lakeside and West Valley experienced decreases at the elementary and middle school level compared to 2021. Decreases ranged from two less students in West Valley to 49 less students in Evergreen.

A SCHOOL that has seen sustained increases in enrollment is Deer Park, located south of Columbia Falls The school which grew by 30 students, or 18%, compared to last year, has reached a decade-high in total enrollment at 199 students. Over the last 10 years, Deer Park — whose facilities include the original 1880 schoolhouse and an old teacherage — grew by 104 students..

“I don’t think this type of growth is at all sustainable,” said Deer Park Principal Sheri Modderman, who joined the district in 2021.

Attempts to pass bonds to expand and significantly renovate the school in 2017 and 2018, failed, though that hasn’t stopped the conversation.

“We’re definitely talking about getting a bond passed. We’re concerned about the current economic state if we could get a bond passed,” she said. “If we don’t try this year, we’ll almost certainly try next year, but nothing is certain at this point. The board is putting together a committee.”

Even with some facility improvements as the budget allows, enrollment growth continues to tax the infrastructure, such as the septic system. During events such as basketball games, the issue becomes quite evident.

“We have 30 more kids using the same amount of bathrooms and septic system. So far, I think we’re muddling through. There hasn’t been anything major yet. I feel we’re always sort of unclogging something though,” she said.

Grades K-3 are either at or just over state accreditation standards for class size. In kindergarten and second grade, class sizes can have a maximum of 20 students. By third grade the max increases to 28. There are 22 kindergarten students, 20 first-graders, 22 second-graders and 28 third-graders, according to the Statistical Report of Schools.

“I would say kindergarten through third grade, they are mostly in-district students where it used to be the opposite,” Modderman said when asked about out-of-district attendance.

“We’re turning people down almost daily,” she said.

LOCATED NEAR Lake Blaine east of Kalispell, Cayuse Prairie also gained 30 students, however, it represents an 11% change to its total enrollment. Total enrollment stands at 306 students.

“It’s mostly people moving into the district,” Cayuse Prairie Principal Amy Piazzola said about the increase.

With at least two classes per grade level, she said there aren’t any grades that are over class size requirements. She noted the school has a small group of second-graders and there is still room to accommodate incoming students, but sixth grade, for example, is full when looking at state accreditation standards for class size, which is a maximum of 26 students.

“We can’t take any more students. We saved the last two spots for in-district transfers,” Piazzola said.

The district is working with LSW Architects to look at options.

“If I look at the pie in the sky [option] to get us through the next five years, ultimately we need four classrooms so we could grow,” she said, which would return an existing classroom back to special education programming.

With the current economy, a dollar may not go as far as it used to.

“We started talking to an architect last spring and when talking about proposals they said they used to be able to put together a classroom for $138 a square foot that is now like $380 a square foot,” Piazzola said.

Growth has also meant holding back on class offerings such as art.

“Ideally I wanted to hire an art teacher, and we had an amazing candidate, but when I look out at projected enrollment and can’t guarantee a job for more than a year [due to space], I just wouldn’t do that to anybody,” Piazzola said.

“We have a lot of band kids. Right now, in the band room, we are at capacity. We can barely fit everyone right now,” she said.

In the meantime, the school has made changes to schedules, for example, adding library visits into block schedules as a special class to ensure access to the shared space. Second and first grade attend specials at the same time in three classrooms, when there are enough students to fill four classrooms.

“We are using every space to the best of our ability,” Piazzola said.

In regard to infrastructure, outside of increasing trash pickup from one to two times a week, the building itself is in good condition.

“The architect came and did an assessment and he said it’s one of the cleanest and well-kept buildings he’s been in during his career,” she said.

THREE OF the county’s four public high schools experienced 2% enrollment increases from last year. Bigfork underwent a 3% increase. This translates to 72 more students in Kalispell’s two high schools, 12 in Bigfork, 11 in Columbia Falls High School and nine in Whitefish High School.

The Whitefish School District recently held its second community engagement meeting to discuss growth and expansion needs of the high school and activity complex. Over the past 10 years, the high school gained 89 students, an 18% increase.

Flathead and Glacier have absorbed 318 additional students in 10 years representing an 11% increase. The two high schools will certainly factor into long-range facility planning that Kalispell Public Schools will soon embark on, according to Superintendent Micah Hill.

The Kalispell school board on Dec. 13 approved a contract with A&E Design to facilitate the long-range facility planning process for the district, which will include conducting a demographic study and facility condition inventory.

“Facility-wise, you can talk about capacity and a couple of different approaches,” Hill said.

He said an individual could look at capacity by the amount of square footage needed per person, or the functional capacity, which looks at how many students can access curriculum offerings.

“Things like music, and art, and vocational classes, like woods, or family, consumer science, or health and PE,” Hill said, adding science labs to the examples. “Those spaces are very limited, like you need a specific type of space.”

WHILE HOME school enrollment in grades K-8 underwent a couple of spikes, notably in 2013 and 2018, it reached its peak in 2020 at the height of the pandemic with 1,338 students.

Numbers have since gone down.

Current enrollment stands at 940 students — a decrease of 63 students, or down 6%, from 2021.

The number of high school students who are home schooled has also decreased compared to last year. Total enrollment stands at 167 high school students, a decrease of 25, or 13%, from last year.

Among private elementary and middle schools, compared to 2021, Trinity Lutheran saw the biggest gain in the number of students, 52 (a 33% change), for a total enrollment of 212. Kalispell Montessori added 24 students (a 38% change), bringing total enrollment to 87. St. Matthew’s Catholic School grew by 23 students (a 16% change), for a total enrollment of 365 students. Whitefish Christian Academy saw the biggest decrease compared to last year, losing 40 students (a 27% decrease).

Stillwater Christian School had a negligible decrease in grades K-8. In grades ninth through 12th, it grew by 10 students or 11%.

Total enrollment in all grades at the private school stands at 271.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com