The Park City School District 2019 student enrollment is 4757 which is 38 fewer students than forecast and 23 fewer than last year. The final enrollment numbers influence the school board’s decisions to close district schools.
The decision must be made by December 1 of the board’s decision to close all Park City Schools until further evaluation can be done.
Enrollment district wide is down but space continues to be a problem in many schools throughout the Park City School District. Business Administrator Todd Hauber projects a 65-student drop in enrollment for next year. He says, this year, the first and 8th grade cohorts are smaller than anticipated. Based on the state calculation, McPolin and Trailside Elementary schools should be open to out of district students for next school year.
“So, under statute we have a responsibility as a board to determine whether the schools are open for next school year based on the current year's instructional stations and average class sizes and the projection for the upcoming school year."
Hauber says the calculation to keep a school open is based on a threshold number of students in a school. Both schools currently use trailer space to accommodate special programming and overflow office staff. Links showing student enrollment by school can be found on KPCW.org.
“With that in hand, I’ve gone and used the same calculation formulas for what instructional stations we count and don't count. So just as a reminder we didn't count portables as spaces and special programming we don't count as instructional stations and offices we don't count as instructional stations so that remained unchanged.”
Board Vice President Erin Grady asked Hauber to evaluate if the trailer spaces being used in the elementary schools could be designated as primary classroom space.
“Can we re-look at our teaching spaces then at McPolin to see what we're doing for making…?
“Reorganize them?”
“Yeah I mean before we open that?
“So, we can. I mean I don't want to say we can't. The reality is that the spaces that they're using for some of their programming aren't the same size as the classroom. So I don't know that switching out specialty space for classroom space workout 'cause they just won't be the same size so you'll be scrunching in a class into a tighter space.”
Hauber says he’ll respond to the motion made by the board to review the current use of the trailer space at both elementary schools.
“To allow us to be able to look at that and figure out what is that change going to do and then run it through the calculations to see whether that will cause the schools to be closed because of those changes or if the recommendation remains unchanged.”
A motion was passed to close all schools in time to meet the December 1 deadline but to explore viability of opening them after further evaluation of space.
https://go.boarddocs.com/ut/pcsd/Board.nsf/files/BHUPYD66D5E5/$file/FY20%20Enrollment%20Statement.pdf
