Like so many things in America, the best possible education depends upon money. Or at least, it sometimes appears that way.
As far as I can tell, nearly every public school and district in Colorado saw a drop in enrollment, at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Where schools had once been judged by the perceived academic achievement of its students and by the safety of its hallways, some new standards had developed.
Is the school offering in-person instruction? Are children required to wearing masks? Does the school have a workable plan for switching smoothly between ‘in-person’ and ‘distance’ learning modes?
Parents on both sides of these issues were taking fresh stock of our public schools, and in some cases, finding them lacking.
From a story by Yesenia Robles posted yesterday on ChalkbeatColorado.org:
Slightly more children enrolled in Colorado public schools this school year than last year, but enrollment still remains far below pre-pandemic levels.
Colorado schools counted 886,517 students, an increase of 3,318 students or just 0.4% over last school year, according to annual data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Education. Before the pandemic caused school closures and other disruptions, Colorado public school enrollment had been growing slowly and was at more than 913,000 in the fall of 2019. Current enrollment is about 2.9% below that level.
When schools shut down, many students stopped engaging and school districts struggled to find them. Districts are spending considerable time and effort on tracking down students who stopped coming to school.
While the Archuleta School District (ASD) saw a significant overall drop in enrollment in September 2020, Pagosa Peak Open School saw its enrollment increase as it had expected. Still, the charter school struggled with COVID closures and quarantines, as did all schools, through the 2020-2021 year.
(Disclosure: I serve on the PPOS charter school board of directors, but this editorial series reflects my personal opinions and not necessarily those of the board as a whole.)
In Denver, meanwhile, Colorado’s governor and Democrat-controlled legislature was determined to fully support the state’s schools with additional money, to ensure that the decreased enrollment did not negatively impact budgets and lead to unnecessary staff turnover. When the school funding bill was approved in the spring of 2021, Colorado’s public education industry had seen the “Per Pupil Revenue” — the basic funding that follows each student into their school’s budget — increase by about 10% per child, for the 2021-2022 school year.
For this school year, ASD saw an enrollment increase, while at the charter school, enrollment remained flat.
As has already been mentioned in this editorial series, an innovative Colorado school — designed to explore educational processes and models outside the ‘norms’ of public education — can seek to be granted a “charter” by the local school district for a fixed length of time. The charter granted to Pagosa Peak Open School in the winter of 2017 would have expired this school year, except that PPOS applied for a charter renewal for another five-year period, and was granted that renewal by ASD earlier this month.
Five years ago, the original PPOS board of directors predicted — based upon parent surveys — the school would comfortably max out its enrollment at 135 students. But recent enrollment trends have suggested that demand has grown for the school’s unique approach to education, and several of the lower elementary grades have maintained waiting lists.
As part of the 2022 renewal application, PPOS requested permission to grow its K-8 enrollment, over the next five years, to 225 students… which would amount to about 14% of the district-wide enrollment (if the district enrollment stayed at the 2022 level).
Two things happen, basically, when a Colorado school expands its enrollment. One is: life becomes more financially secure. With its current enrollment of 120 students, PPOS receives about $1.0 million in Per Pupil Revenue (PPR) from the state. Other smaller grants come from the federal government, based on the number of ‘economically disadvantaged’ students. Out of that $1 million-plus, PPOS must pay for — among other costs — the loan for the building, purchased two years ago through USDA Rural Development. The loan payments, plus building operations and maintenance, total about $190,000 per year.
That is to say, the building itself eats up nearly 20% of the annual budget. This is typical for a charter school. (Conventional schools in Colorado typically pay for their buildings out of separately-funded local general obligation bonds.)
If PPOS were to grow to 225 students — and the PPR level remained the same — the school would receive PPR of $2.0 million. But the building costs would still remain basically the same… meaning that, all things being equal, PPOS would have an extra $190,000 per year to invest in academic programs for its students. Or into staff salaries. Or whatever.
The other thing that typically happens when a school grows larger: life becomes socially more complicated. It can become easier for students to ‘fall through the cracks.’ Classrooms and playground spaces become more crowded. The school begins to feel more like an institution, and less like a big family. There’s a larger staff to maintain, and keep happy.
Will PPOS be able to provide the best possible education, by expanding? It’s a trade-off. Going forward, PPOS has made the decision to begin the experiment, and see whether the trade-off is worth it. But the biggest challenge, in a community with a serious housing crisis, might be to find and retain the staff necessary for a larger school.
Yesterday, Archuleta School District Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza announced her resignation — effective February 18 — after less than 2 years in that position. She has accepted a job as Deputy Superintendent for the Jefferson County School District. Personally, I’m sorry to see her leave.
Living and working in Pagosa Springs for the past almost-30-years, I have a sense of what it means to be part of the local workforce here.
On the one hand, you feel blessed to have a job in such a quaint mountain community… to live with clean air and water, in a place where children can still walk to the park, or down to the lake, unsupervised.
On the other hand, you know that you would likely be earning 50% more, doing the very same job in a big city like Denver or Houston.
It’s a trade-off.
Like so many things.