Enrollment is down at schools during COVID-19. Here’s what that means to Whatcom districts
Enrollment in nearly all of Whatcom County’s seven public school districts have dropped, some sharply, likely because of COVID-19 and the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, according to new preliminary figures and a news release from the state on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Hundreds of Whatcom families didn’t enroll students in public schools for the start of the school year, a trend that’s being seen statewide.
In Whatcom County, enrollment increased only at Meridian School District.
Statewide, enrollment dropped by 2.8% in the state’s public K-12 schools, or nearly 31,000 students out of Washington’s total of nearly 1.1 million, according to a news release from the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
“We are not alone in this,” said Chris Reykdal, superintendent of Public Instruction. “As our nation continues to fight the spread of COVID-19, states across the country are seeing changes in K–12 enrollment as families make decisions about the safest and most effective learning environments for their children.”
“With the uncertainty of what this school year would bring, it is not a surprise to see these shifts in enrollment,” Reykdal said in the release.
He encouraged families to stay in touch.
“However, most of our districts are working around the clock to simultaneously provide instruction at a distance while preparing for a return to in-person learning. As families make important decisions about their children’s’ learning, I strongly encourage them to stay connected to their local school district to ensure a smooth transition as safe in-person learning options return,” Reykdal said.
The new data compared enrollment in September 2020 to September 2019.
A big portion of the decline is being attributed to families not enrolling kindergarten-age children, possibly because they’re delaying the start of kindergarten, according to the release.
A continued decline in enrollment, which is counted each month, will affect how much money schools get from the state.
The release highlighted overall enrollment, kindergarten enrollment and enrollment in alternative learning experience courses, which the state said are public education courses where some or all of what is taught is delivered outside of regular classroom schedules.
In Whatcom County, public schools started the school year with online distance learning because of the pandemic, although five school districts are planning to soon bring back their youngest learners and other students with the greatest needs for in-person learning.
Bellingham Public Schools and the Mount Baker School District have not yet announced when they will begin bringing students back into school buildings.
Here’s a look at what the state data shows for Whatcom County schools, and school leaders’ thoughts on what’s driving the enrollment trends for their districts.
Bellingham Public Schools
This school district has the most students, by far, in Whatcom County.
It had 382 fewer K-12 students enrolled this September compared to the same time in 2019.
That represented a 3.3% drop in overall enrollment, which totaled 11,094 for the start of this school year.
Bellingham families enrolled 75 fewer kindergartners.
The current enrollment of 734 kindergarten students represented a drop of nearly 9.3%.
As for students in alternative learning experience courses, that number jumped to 481, representing an increase of 75.5%.
Statewide, about one-third of the total decrease in enrollment — or more than 11,000 students — is being attributed to the drop in kindergarten students, according to the state.
At 14%, that was the largest drop by grade level, although the state said that the early grades had larger declines in enrollment across the board than older students.
Statewide, the number of students enrolled in the alternative learning courses was up nearly 50% to 44,000, according to the release.
Dana Smith, representative for the Bellingham school district, said the pandemic affected enrollment, including with kindergarten students.
“We think the pandemic is playing a role in families’ choices. Some families appear to have decided to wait and see what happens this year before enrolling their 5-year-olds in school,” she said.
Smith added: “We are working to communicate with families whose children are eligible for kindergarten but not yet enrolled, to see how we can support them. We are also looking ahead to how our system — here and across the state — may need to respond to an enrollment ‘bubble’ in the future.”
Other reasons included families moving to other parts of Washington, out of the state and out of the country, according to Smith.
“Anecdotally, we heard from some families that loss of employment or rising housing costs motivated their move, but, of course, we don’t always know the reasons behind families moving and we don’t keep that data. We also know some have chosen to enroll in private schools or home-school,” she said.
The district’s alternative learning experience courses are in the Bellingham Family Partnership Program, which serves K-8 students.
Families new to the program said they joined for a number of reasons.
“They wished to choose a system that could work for their families for the entire year, they had concerns about health in their family and/or our community, and/or they had an interest in having more family involvement for their child’s learning,” Smith said. “In some cases, they had previously wondered about home-schooling, and this unusual year provided an opportunity to try it.”
The drop in enrollment of 382 full-time students could mean a loss of about $3.4 million in state funding — out of a budgeted $109 million from the state for enrollment, according to Smith.
“We are optimistic we can cover losses for this school year by using reserves and making thoughtful budget and hiring decisions,” she said.
Blaine School District
Families enrolled 63 fewer students, a drop of a little over 2.8%.
The school district now has 2,123 students.
However, it gained seven kindergarten students for a total of 167. That’s an increase of more than 4.3%.
It has six more students in alternative learning experience courses — a total of 86 for an increase of 7.5%.
Superintendent Chris Granger said the down trend for Blaine follows what’s being seen in many districts in Washington state.
“While a small number of those students have chosen private school options, the larger portion have chosen a home-school option for this school year,” he said.
Granger said declines in enrollment affect this year’s budget and those in the future in areas that include levy collection.
The impact is deeper on the funding side than counting each student, he added, noting that school budgets are prepared using what’s called full-time equivalency numbers.
For Blaine that was budgeted at a higher level than what has occurred. As of this week, Granger said on Thursday, Oct. 8, that loss amounted to 130 students, for a 5.9% decrease.
“The district has been evaluating positions in various categories and has worked on not filling open positions, instead evaluating our internal capacity,” he said. “We will continue to evaluate the impact throughout this year as we prepare for next year as well.”
Ferndale School District
The district has 4,193 students — a decrease of 331 students compared to September 2019.
That represented a drop of 7.3% in total enrollment.
Fewer families enrolled their students in kindergarten as well.
The district has 272 kindergartners, a loss of 82 students — representing a 23.1% decline.
It also had seven fewer students enrolled in alternative learning experience courses, representing a loss of over 20.5%. The current enrollment is 27 students.
Linda Quinn, superintendent for Ferndale, attributed the decline in students to COVID-19.
“During the past few years, our budgeted enrollment number has been very accurate, so this is definitely a pandemic-related anomaly,” Quinn said.
She said there were more students at the higher grades this school year.
“The vast majority of the decline is at the elementary level, where we have about 280 fewer students. Our middle school is down some, but our high school is actually up about 40 students,” Quinn explained.
Like other superintendents, Quinn said she didn’t have specific data on where the students went.
“We know we have gotten many more requests to home-school. We suspect some parents are deciding to hold their 5-year-olds out for a year,” she said.
Quinn also worried about declining enrollment’s impact on district funding, saying that a drop in 300 students equates to “a budget shortfall in state apportionment of approximately $2.8 million.”
The district’s budget is $69 million, with $63 million in revenues and the remaining $6 million in reserves that serve as a rainy day fund.
Having fewer students also will affect other funding sources, such as state dollars for learning-assistance and federal dollars for title programs that help students including those who are low-income, because they are calculated based on enrollment in-part, according to Quinn.
“Reduced enrollment has a ripple effect. So many things are based on the number of students a district serves,” she said. “Coming on top of the levy failure last February, this puts our district in a very difficult position financially.”
The levy will go back before Ferndale School District voters for their reconsideration on Nov. 3.
Lynden School District
Families enrolled 195 fewer students, a decrease of 5.7%.
The school district now has 3,189 students.
Lynden has 228 kindergartners, a decrease of 68 students from last year — representing a drop of 22.9%.
However, it has 192 more students in alternative learning experience courses, for a total of 479 students or an increase of 66.9%.
Superintendent Jim Frey said to The Bellingham Herald that the decline in overall enrollment was actually steeper, at 250 students from what was budgeted.
Frey said that while it was “difficult to provide a specific account of where students have gone,” he believed that some K-12 students may have gone to private schools, moved or are home-schooling.
“Due to the uncertainty and circumstances, families are making decisions they feel are best for their children and safety and well-being of their families,” he said.
As for the surge in alternative learning experience courses, Frey said two of the three instruction options that the district provided to students and their families fit into that category of courses and the numbers reflected that “many students and families elected to move to those.”
Frey was concerned about school funding in the immediate future and for the long term.
“The decline in enrollment doers mean a decline in resources,” he said. “In the short term we are trying to determine the best way to support student and learning. The reality is that we have less resources than normal to do so and will need to be very cautious to reduce in areas that we can and still provide for student learning.
“We do have some resources set aside for emergencies and hope in the short term we will be able to manage and maintain a healthy budget,” Frey added. “However, I am very concerned about the long-term impact of funding for schools as the state economy has been significantly impacted, which will have an impact on future resources.”
Meridian School District
This is the one school district in Whatcom that didn’t see a drop in its overall enrollment in K-12.
It has 1,796 students, an increase of 59 students, which is 3.4% of enrollment
However, it has six fewer kindergarten students. The total of 131 kindergartners represent a decline of more than 4.3%.
Meridian has 151 more students in alternative learning experience courses, for a total of 386 students or an increase of 64.2%.
James Everett, superintendent for Meridian, said that the district didn’t see a drop in its overall enrollment, in part, because of steps it took “in anticipation of the school year based on what we experienced from March to June.”
March was when schools in Washington state had to suddenly switch to online learning after they were closed to slow the spread of the pandemic.
Expecting to start this school year remotely, the district changed the format of its Meridian Parent Partnership Program so that the teachers in MP3, as the program is known, could support parents.
“We saw several families from within our district choose to go with MP3 for the semester rather than independently home-schooling their children or go to another system,” Everett said.
He also noted an increase in high school enrollment, at ninth- and 11th-grades, and said that fewer of the district’s high school students enrolled in Running Start, choosing to stay with Meridian High School.
As for the dip in kindergarten students, that was in keeping with the statewide trends, according to Everett.
As for the jump in alternative learning experience courses, he attributed that to the changes made to MP3.
“MP3 has an excellent reputation for the programs they have offered on campus and in the remote format. Since we knew we would not be able to offer the campus program this semester, we changed the format to be fully remote where parents receive support from our MP3 teachers as they deliver the curriculum,” Everett said.
“About a third of the increase at MP3 is accounted for by traditional Meridian families. The other two-thirds have enrolled from communities across the state who have been connected with MP3 in previous years and have continued to enroll their children in our program. Among many reasons, families were seeking options to teach their own children while also receiving teacher guidance and support,” he said.
He said MP3 provided flexibility, particularly for working families and those who wanted to home-school their children.
Mount Baker School District
The school district has 93 fewer students, at 1,675 for the start of the school year. That’s a drop of over 5.2%
The school district now has 2,123 students.
However, it gained 101 students in alternative learning experience courses — for a total of 127 and an increase of 388.4%.
Mount Baker also has 106 kindergarten students, a decrease of 25 students. That’s a 19% decline.
Mary Sewright, superintendent for Mount Baker, said the district doesn’t have exact data on the reasons behind the enrollment drop, including for kindergarten students, but said it could be due to some students choosing to attend private school while most ”have elected to home-school.”
She also believed that some parents were waiting a year before sending their children to kindergarten.
The district’s alternative learning experience courses fall under The Mount Baker Academy, which Sewright said “has a stellar reputation in our community.”
“Many of these people want to home-school with support. The program provides personalized learning plans with curriculum and technology support as well as a connection with a teacher,” she said, adding that three more teachers have been added to the academy to support the increase in students.
“They are learning remotely right now but will probably move towards coming to school once a week for additional help at some point in the future,” she said.
Sewright also worried about the impact of reduced enrollment, saying the state Legislature will need to step in.
“Loss of enrollment has a significant impact on our budget as it reduces our revenue,” Sewright said.
“When we lose revenue we have to make cuts. We are mitigating this loss by making cuts where we can this year, but we may have to RIF staff members for next year if there is not assistance from the Legislature,” she said.
RIF stands for reduction in force, or layoffs.
Nooksack Valley School District
The district experienced a slight drop in K-12 enrollment, with 16 fewer students — representing a decline of 0.86%.
It has 1,839 students.
Fewer families enrolled their youngest students, with 56 fewer kindergartners.
It has 144 kindergarten students, representing a drop of 28%.
Mark Johnson, superintendent for Nooksack Valley, said the district’s overall enrollment has declined even more sharply than the preliminary figures provided by the state indicated — dropping by 3.5% from what was budgeted.
Before this school year, district enrollment had been “growing rapidly” over the past several years, he said.
He specifically referenced the steep drop in kindergarten enrollment, saying families were making the “choices that are best for them during this time.”
“We do believe that the kindergarten enrollment will increase once we start back with in-person learning, Johnson said.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
