Colorado’s public schools have gained 12,470 students this school year, an “upturn” after years of declining enrollment, according to the state Department of Education.
The state Board of Education has requested additional funding from the legislature to pay for a 1.7 percent increase in enrollment, based on a count of students Oct. 1. The growth was almost four times what officials were expecting, bringing statewide enrollment to 741,470, officials said.
“The bulk of districts are still in declining enrollment, but we’ve seen some high growth in districts like Falcon, Brighton and Douglas County,” said Vody Herrmann, the Department of Education’s director of school finance. “This has been kind of an upturn, which is good.”
The increase in students would require an additional $142 million in funding, of which $128.6 million is to be provided by the state and $13.8 million by local property taxes. School districts get an average of $6,330 per pupil from those funds, Herrmann said.
“It appears that the growth in the economy and population made a positive impact this year in student enrollment,” said Legislative Legal Council economist Tom Dunn.
Brighton School District continued to be the fastest growing, showing a 12.5 percent increase in enrollment. The fast growth has made it difficult to find enough space to relieve overcrowded schools while making other ends meet after the district lost a bond election last year, interim Superintendent Rodger Quist said.
“The additional funding won’t have the impact we’d like; we appreciate anything we can get because we’re struggling, no doubt,” Quist said.
Some school administrators say growth is a good.
“We’d much rather have a problem of growing too fast than having empty schools and having to consider closing a school,” Falcon School District spokesman Joe Cole said.
Hurricane Katrina contributed to the increase in students. About 546 “Katrina kids” come from families who fled the Gulf Coast, according to the CDE.
“The state probably didn’t anticipate the type of growth,” said Rick Kaufman, spokesman for Jefferson County Public Schools.
Jeffco schools, the state’s largest district, as predicted saw a slight decline in enrollment from 86,877 students in 2004, down to 86,339 in 2005.
“The cost of living in Jefferson is extremely high for families, and we’re having to compete with that,” Kaufman said. “We’re having more kids graduating than kindergarten students coming in.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
