Enrollment drop: Less money in the bank for Falls district

“I’m surprised we had the number of students leave that we did because of what the board has done in addressing the class size issue,” Nelson said.

Last spring, the board agreed to hire additional teachers in several elementary grade levels to bring class sizes down.

While Nelson said he understands it will take time for parents in the district “to trust that the district” will shrink the numbers of students in each class, he can’t pinpoint why 44 elementary students have sought education elsewhere this school year.

“It’s too many,” he said of the number, adding Falls High School’s enrollment is down eight students. That number does not include high school juniors and seniors who enroll in classes at Rainy River Community College through the Post-Secondary Education Option Program.

The state contributes about $6,000 for each pupil enrolled in the public school system and the loss of 52 students easily impacts the finances of a district with 1,114 students.

Nelson said he was also alarmed by the incoming and outgoing figures for open enrollment.

“Every district has an open enrollment going in and an open enrollment going out,” he explained. “This district has five (students) coming in and 191 going out...That is the highest number I’ve seen wherever I’ve been.”

Nelson said the number has been consistent for the last decade or more and said he hopes by offering more electives, a more even balance might be achieved.

“If we can get maybe 100 kids coming in and 100 kids going out, it’d be a wash,” he said. “We are looking to stop the outflow of students.”

More electives

Offering more electives at the secondary level would only make the district more attractive to students, Nelson said.

“We need to have something different than a six-period day,” he added.

The superintendent was adamant dissolving an eight-period day the district had in place at one time was a mistake and “it needs to be brought back.”

“The board has been working on getting a seven- or eight-period day for quite some time,” he said. “I don’t know why it was ever given up. It shouldn’t have been given up.”

Nelson said with more electives, students would be given more choices and options when dealing with scheduling conflicts.

“I’d like to see more fine arts,” he said. “Students need those kinds of options.”

On the same note, he gave credit to the district and school board for offering a new engineering class for high school students. The class, Nelson said, has already brought back some PSEO students.

He said the district needs to more clearly define its graduation requirements outside of what is mandated by the state.

“We need to have long-term goals on what the school district is going to require for graduation,” he said. “It is important we take a look at some of the things we are requiring here.”

Other issues

Nelson said he understands some previous issues families have had, namely bullying, within the district’s schools has prompted them to transfer to a neighboring district’s school.

Comments made on social media sites blame the Falls district for its lack of handling bullying issues. Nelson, however, said that isn’t the case.

“Every school district has to address bullying – it’s in our society both inside and outside school,” he said. “We are no different here.”

A new approach to rewarding positive behaviors is being taken at the elementary level and Nelson said he believes it will cut back on bullying and harassment and build up the positives.

In addition to class sizes, limited electives and social issues contributing to the loss of students attending the district, is the local economy. The May 2 announcement from Boise Inc. to layoff 265 people at the local paper mill by Oct. 1 has already resulted in “a few families moving elsewhere,” Nelson said, adding the number will likely increase as the layoffs begin.

“It was kind of a double whammy with Boise,” he said of this year’s decline in enrollment.

Initially after Boise’s announcement, Nelson predicted the current school year would see a reduction of about 5 percent in students. Later in June he said a more “realistic” number was about 1 percent.

“It takes approximately a year to really see the effects of a major closure like this,” he said. “A year from now the 1 percent may be increased. It would be nice if it wouldn’t, but we’ll see a year from this fall.”

Staffing adjustments

Efforts to increase staff at both schools led Nelson to believe the district was on the right path to keeping students local. He said he doesn’t foresee the need to reduce any staff, but rather some of its hours.

“We’re going to take a strong look at staffing arrangements,” he said. “We will need to adjust the number of labor hours the district has in place... At this time, we want to maintain our course on class sizes and see what the numbers are next spring to make any further adjustments accordingly.”

Nelson said the district may also need to apply the brakes on some of its spending.

“There may be some purchases we would like to make, but may need to curtail those purchases,” he said. “We will really take a strong look at our facilities and if an issue can wait – we will look at putting things off...I’d rather see that than reduce our staff.”

All in all, Nelson said the district is improving behind the scenes.

”Teachers and students are improving with test results and we have to be happy about that,” he said. “We may not be up to that state average line, but we continue to make progress year after year.”

In addition, he said the implementation of iPads into the curriculum is making the district more competitive.

“It is easy to focus on the negatives, but we have to stay positive,” he said. “We are improving and will continue to do so.”