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Tracking the County’s Residential Shifts Through School Enrollment

Kalispell experiencing sustained growth while Columbia Falls recovers from big drop; homeschools and certain rural schools skyrocketing

By Myers Reece
Deer Park School. Beacon File Photo

Over the past decade, the number of public and private school students in Flathead County has increased 12 percent, from 14,702 in 2009 to 16,473 this fall, with several of the largest public districts experiencing sustained growth while homeschools are skyrocketing in enrollment.

A notable decline is Columbia Falls, where the high school population has dropped by 15 percent and the elementary enrollment has fallen less sharply, although both have been increasing in recent years after bottoming out.

The figures come from the Flathead County Superintendent of Schools’ recently released annual Statistical Report of Schools, based on October’s enrollment counts at all schools in the county, including public and private institutions and homeschooled students.

The county has four public K-12 districts and 15 independent public elementary districts, as well as seven private high school districts and eight private elementary districts, counting homeschools, which are listed as their own district.

Since 2009, homeschool enrollment has increased 277 percent in high school (48 to 181 students) and 134 percent in elementary (350 to 818).

Flathead County Superintendent of Schools Jack Eggensperger isn’t sure what accounts for the rapid rise in homeschooling, and adds that it’s difficult to get precise numbers in general because the state requires so little oversight of homeschools. Families are supposed to register their kids with Eggensperger’s office, but if they don’t, or if they don’t reregister every year, there’s not much county officials can do. Curriculum is entirely up to parents, Eggensperger said.

“There’s basically no accountability other than the fact they have to register with the county superintendent’s office,” he said. “There’s no teeth in the law. If somebody checks out of school, or doesn’t register, we have no idea that they’re even out there.”

The most rapidly growing public elementary districts over the last decade are West Glacier (132 percent), Deer Park (131 percent), West Valley (49 percent) and Cayuse Prairie (43 percent).

West Glacier and Deer Park are unique because out-of-district students account for much of the increase, not to mention, as small schools, any bump in numbers will send the percentages soaring. Fifty-two of West Glacier’s 65 total students are from the Columbia Falls district, which includes Coram and Martin City.

Along with Deer Park and West Glacier, Swan River also has a high percentage of out-of-district students, with many coming from the Bigfork district.

“(The families) like the idea of the smaller classes and more individualized instruction,” Eggensperger said.

Cayuse Prairie and West Valley, meanwhile, are experiencing sustained population and home-development growth in their vicinities. West Valley, in particular, is accumulating and will continue to accumulate students from the significant influx of development occurring and planned in west Kalispell.

In 2009, West Valley had 436 students; it has now 650. A new state law allows districts with 1,000 students to decide if they want to form their own high school district, and West Valley is well on its way to reaching that threshold.

“I’d be surprised if we’re not over 1,000 kids in five to 10 years,” West Valley Superintendent Cal Ketchum told the Beacon earlier this year.

In addition to the elementary districts within the four K-12 districts — Kalispell, Whitefish, Bigfork and Columbia Falls — the county has 15 independent elementary districts, which Eggensperger believes is the most of any county in Montana.

Those standalone, rural elementary districts are self-governing with their own school boards and budgets, including the one-room Pleasant Valley School, which this year has, once again, only one student. They feed students into the four high schools, with Kalispell alone claiming 13 as partner districts.

“Flathead County is very unusual in that it has 15 independent elementary districts,” Eggensperger said.

Through the state’s funding formula, public schools are paid a certain amount per student on top of a base amount, among other considerations within the formula. The so-called ANB (Average Number Belonging) takes the average enrollment between two annual counts, one conducted in February and the other in October.

For the ANB per-student entitlement, schools can use either the prior year’s enrollment or a three-year average, which guards against a large single-year drop disproportionately impacting a school’s budget. No matter which figure is used, however, the same truth holds: schools with declining enrollments face harsh financial realities.

On the flipside, rapidly growing districts are confronted with their own budgetary dilemmas, as operational resources and infrastructure must keep pace with the growth and can be stretched thin.

The largest district in the county is Kalispell elementary, which has grown 13 percent since 2009 to 3,079 students, followed by the city’s high school district with 2,883 students.

Among the four K-12 districts, only Columbia Falls has seen enrollment declines over the last decade, experiencing drops in both high school and elementary, although both Whitefish and Bigfork’s high schools dropped for a number of years before spiking.

Columbia Falls High School numbers fell from 782 in 2009 to 638 in 2015 before seeing a rise back up to 661 this year. Elementary enrollment dropped from 1,518 in 2009 to 1,400 in 2014, but is up to 1,448 now.

Eggensperger is optimistic about Columbia Falls’ future because of recent economic activity appearing to signal a town on the rise.

“I don’t know if it was the aluminum plant closing in 2009 that cost them so much because they’re really went downhill from 2009 to 2015,” Eggensperger said. “But I think they’re going to start growing again because there’s a lot going on there.”