Fort Collins – A girl who hails from Albania darts into Laurie Marks’ classroom to do some quick work on a computer. The girl has a home at Moore Elementary, says Marks, as do students from 16 other countries.
Marks teaches fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders with moderate cognitive needs at Moore, which takes pride in being among the most ethnically diverse schools in the Poudre School District.
But Moore’s unique qualities could lead to its closure. The already enrollment-challenged Poudre district is eyeing Moore because its gyrating student numbers are dropping.
Moore has 320 students this year, down from 400 in 2004, and district projections foresee little improvement.
Many who go to Moore are the children of students at nearby Colorado State University working towards advanced degrees, said principal Amy Smith.
Because of that, five teachers at the school are bilingual, including one in Arabic. Flags from 17 countries representing the national backgrounds of Moore’s students line the main hallway. Traditions from each nation are honored, including fasting rituals during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“This place is a safe harbor for these kids,” said Marks. “There is not another school in the district quite like Moore.”
But government crackdowns on visas for foreign students, especially from the Middle East, have drastically cut into Moore’s enrollment.
And many CSU families leave after three or four years, adding to fluctuations in student numbers, Smith said. “There is a lot of transiency here.”
This comes as 17 of 30 elementary schools in the older parts of the district also are losing kids.
Poudre’s current enrollment is about 23,340, but by 2009 that number is predicted to inch up to about 23,448, according to district estimates.
That small bump will be due mostly to growth in Wellington – north of Fort Collins – and in housing hot spots in southeast Fort Collins.
The result is a huge enrollment gap, in which some schools are only 60 percent full while others are at 110 percent of capacity, school officials say.
That takes a toll on a district that depends on state funding based on enrollment to help pay for new schools in high-growth areas, said Poudre’s Jim Sarchet, assistant superintendent of business services.
“We’re not gaining any money from overall growth,” he said.
The district may compensate by building at least one new school where enrollment is heavy and saving money by relocating students from over-capacity schools to those less full.
At least two of the district’s plans involve closing Moore. The school is surrounded by four others that are underused and which can easily accommodate Moore’s students, said a school committee looking into the issue.
But Moore parents and teachers say the school provides back-to-the-basics “core knowledge” instruction that kids with little English background need to succeed.
“Our at-risk students are more than just numbers,” said parent Anna Hughes, who has three kids at Moore.
Other Moore parents are not used to voicing concerns in public, said Smith. She says that has hurt the school’s chances.
“Especially the parents in the neighborhoods,” she said. “It’s not in their nature to speak out.”
They’ll get a chance at 6:30 tonight when the committee’s work will be discussed at a school board work session at Johannsen School Center, 2407 LaPorte Ave. A final decision is to be made in January.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
