Copeland listens to communities

Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD#2) School Superintendent Dr. Jim Copeland and Sally Wells, CCSD#2 Business Manager, went to the northern Carbon County communities of Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow last week to talk about their elementary schools.

At 6 p.m. on Oct. 29 Copeland went to Elk Mountain Elementary School and met with a large crowd in the school’s auditorium. The crowd was so large, people were standing along the walls.

Copeland started the meeting after introducing himself and Wells by assuring the crowd no decisions had been reached by the school board nor would any decisions be made at the end of the meeting.

“First, know that no decision has been made nor will any be made tonight concerning the school, but I am here to share information,” Copeland said. “I am here to share enrollment numbers, funding models, financing and basically start communication with this community.”

He said it would be inappropriate for a decision about a school to be made without getting input from the community.

“I want us to talk a little about possibilities, planning, what some options might be and just start the communication back and forth,” Copeland said. “Because there are certain trends that are happening district wide, specifically in our two smallest schools, that we just can’t ignore.”

Copeland said he had been superintendent for five years and the attendance trends started at 2014-15 and concluded 2018-19. He had statistics for all the schools in the district.

In 2014 Encampment had 158 and currently has 124 students currently enrolled. The two Saratoga schools had a combined attendance of 284 in 2014 and the current population is 300. Hanna’s schools had 148 total population in 2014 and 166 in 2018. Elk Mountain had 13 students in 2014 and is down to two currently. Medicine Bow had 27 in 2014 and is now eight.

CCSD#2 as a whole had 630 total students and in 2018 it is 605.

Copeland said he was looking at trends at possible incoming kindergartens for both of the smaller schools. He said it was an estimate based on what was known about families living in the communities, but that it could change.

The estimate had Elk Mountain increasing from two to a total of 11 in 2021 and Medicine Bow would gain five for the same time frame.

He said the attendance model was based on an average of three years. This helped both small schools because, last year, there were more students.

“All our schools are funded on a three year average and if you are going down in enrollment like we are trending somewhat, this model is better for us,” Copeland said. “It is a rolling average.”

He said this current model could change if the legislature decided it wanted something different.

Copeland said if current costs were held flat versus the projected revenues from the state, there would be a shortfall for both Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow.

Elk Mountain’s current expenditure of fixed costs is estimated at $230,821. The school would be in a shortfall in 2019 of around $15,000 with the current projections. By 2021 the shortfall would be a little over $70,000.

Medicine Bow current expenditure is $326.150 and in 2019 the shortfall would run over $85,000. In the year 2021 the shortfall would be over $130,000.

“This doesn’t mean the expenses have to say the same,” Copeland said. “There are different ways on how to run a school, such as the amount of teachers and personnel that can be full time and part time. I want to make clear the expenses could be different.”

Members of the audience talked about home schooling effecting the numbers. Currently there are four students in Elk Mountain being home schooled. Copeland said he understood why parents wanted to home school their children. He also said parents sometimes send children to another school if there was only one student in a class so the student could interact with peers.

He ended the meeting telling the audience that there were a lot of unknowns and he appreciated the time and ideas the community gave him.

At 6 p.m. on Oct. 30 Copeland went to Medicine Bow Elementary School and met with another large crowd in the school’s gym. He went over the same information he shared with Elk Mountain.

The Medicine Bow audience listened and, afterwards, similar questions were voiced about the school being closed.

Copeland again made it clear no decisions had been made nor would they be made without listening to the communities. He said he understood the effect a school closing would have on any small community.

“But in order to have a school, you have to have students,” Copeland said. “We can’t teach if there is no bodies.”

He said if a decision was to made this year, it would be during the March board meeting because that was when the teachers contracts were renewed. A continuing status teacher who has been teaching in the district for three years had priority over an initial teacher who doesn’t have tenure.

He made it known, although March board meeting was the crucial time to make decisions, it was not a given this year a decision would be made. It might be next year or the year after.

“The goal here is to share information and have the communities be a part of the decision making process,” Copeland said. “Our overall concern is doing what is best for the students.”

The Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow audiences listening to Copeland had to be encouraged that CCSD#2 was taking seriously their concerns about the declining enrollments without wanting to close the schools.