WPSD enrollment decline trend over five years, impact on budget. Why one mom of three left the district over the summer.
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Tag Archives: enrollment
’23-24 enrollment numbers
The CDE published enrollment data for the current ’23-24 school year on their website; Woodland Park RE-2 enrollment is down from 2122 last year to 2015 this year, a -5.04% decrease and loss of 107 students. 554 Woodland Park kids are choosing to go to school outside of this district, up from 473 last year. While most of those kids are opting in to Manitou Springs (173), another big winner was Ken Witt’s ERBOCES, which attracted 96 Woodland Park students (presumably, online school?). Woodland Park also saw more students opting IN to the district from other districts, up from 210 last year to 259 this year. The net loss of the district was 295 students, versus 263 the previous school year.
District enrollment decline data (10/5)
We repeatedly hear David Illingworth and Ken Witt talk about enrollment increases in the district. The only way they can make that claim is if they count Merit Academy kids as NOT being part of our district the year that school opened in the ’21-22 school year. From a legal standpoint that’s correct, but it ignores the fact that Merit Academy was physically located in city limits that first year. So I’m going to count them as part of the district, but I’m including all the data at the end here if you want to interpret it differently.
District-wide enrollment
- 2021-2022 school year: 2036 students
- 2022-2023 school year: 2007 students
- 2023-2024 school year: 1904 students
Note that the 2023-2024 numbers are not yet final and won’t be until closer to the end of October, though are showing a 5% decline in enrollment. I have not included pre-K in these numbers due to the universal pre-K program new to Colorado this year – comparisons to past years are not applicable as a result.
When Merit Academy opened for the 2021-2022 school year, we did see a 2.6% enrollment boost – that school helped fill a niche here, though Covid is also credited with driving people out of cities and to the suburbs. Note though this was before the current board was voted in.
2021-2022 school year (data per the CDE)
1832 students in the district schools, 1749 if you don’t count pre-K. Merit had 287. Total is 2036, or 2119 with pre-K.
2022-2023 school year (data per the CDE)
Total is 2007, or 2122 students with pre-K.
2023-2024 school year (preliminary data from 9/25 district count)
Total is 1904, or 2026 with pre-K.
’23-24 preliminary enrollment numbers
It took a few CORA requests, but I finally have the preliminary enrollment numbers for our school district, as of the end of August. These are absolutely not final, it’s the count in early October that matters, but it’s a valid data point that shows where we’re starting this year at. I’ll update these numbers once the official October count is complete.
Since this is the first year of universal pre-K in Colorado, I’m excluding those numbers from each years’ comparison. Just focusing on Kindergarten through 12th grade. Also note, I’m using CDE data for previous years (download the ‘membership_grade_by_school’ files). Merit Academy has many students in their homeschool enrichment program, and the CDE counts those as 50% (for funding purposes). So for consistency, I’m applying the same 50% there (for ’23-24, they have 60 students in this program so that counts as 30 in the numbers below; they had 59 the previous year).
In summary, this is yet another year of declining enrollment in our school district, even considering the growth in Merit Academy.
| ’21-22 | ’22-23 | ’23-24 | |
| Traditional Public School enrollment | 1749 | 1676 | 1592 |
| Total District Enrollment* | 2036 | 2007 | 1986 |
Here’s the breakdown by school for the same time period. Merit has shown growth, the other schools are decreasing. Note the sharp drop in the Middle School for this year is largely due to moving 6th grade from that school to the three elementary schools.
This school board has consistently voted to boost Merit and ignore our traditional public schools, and these numbers reflect that. We continue to see declining overall district enrollment, too.
If you have concerns about me not including preschool in these numbers, here are the enrollment totals WITH preschool included:
| ’21-22 | ’22-23 | ’23-24 | |
| Traditional Public School enrollment | 1832 | 1791 | 1721 |
| Total District Enrollment* | 2119 | 2122 | 2085 |
Lastly, note that per CDE data, in the ’22-23 school year, 473 students in our district opted out, and went to schools in other districts. We don’t know what the numbers are for ’23-24 yet.
Continue reading →WPSD Enrollment Numbers – a closer look
It’s worth doing a deeper dive into enrollment numbers, as it’s something this board likes to frequently tout. We’ll set aside for now whether the quality of a school district should be judged by enrollment…and just evaluate this statistic.
The Claim
- BOE has increased enrollment by ~15% for the ’22-23 school year
The Vedict: misleading
- District enrollment did indeed increase 15.8% in ’22-23 compared to ’21-22.
- Digging Deeper:
- In the ’21-22 school year, Merit kids were not counted as being in Woodland Park RE-2, they were legally part of ERBOCES (their status was Contract School).
- Merit kids were going to school in town in ’21-22, but not counting towards district numbers. Hence, the big jump when they were then reclassified as WPSD as a charter school.
- When Merit opened for the ’21-22 school year, WPSD enrollment decreased by 11% as those kids shifted from WPSD to ERBOCES.
- If we count Merit students as always being part of WPSD, the numbers are:
- ’21-22 school year: 3.1% increase in enrollment (the first year Merit opened)
- ’22-23 school year: 0.14% increase in enrollment
- Given the chaotic COVID time and nationwide shift in population to more rural areas during that time, it’s impossible to say if that 3.1% increase was due to Merit or just nationwide trends.
- The claim that district enrollment increased 15% this past school year is misleading, it uses a shell game to inflate numbers.
- DATA: enrollment numbers, from the CDE (direct link to XLS)
- 2018-2019: 2380
- 2019-2020: 2284
- 2020-2021: 2055
- 2021-2022: 1832 (Merit’s first year)
- 2021-2022: 2119 – if you include the 287 Merit students
- 2022-2023: 2122
- Student enrollment has been on the decline in Woodland Park prior to COVID, though demographics have also been changing.
The truth about enrollment numbers
Our board has liked to tout the ~16% jump in enrollment this school year, presenting it as a sign they’re doing the right thing. While it’s an encouraging sign for sure, what they’re not mentioning is the number of students LOST when Merit Academy opened under the direction of ERBOCES. Meaning, the Woodland Park RE-2 school district is not experiencing large growth…it’s a shell game. We’ll need to see how the next couple years pan out to really determine if we’re on the right track.
Enrollment numbers, from the CDE (direct link to XLS):
- 2018-2019: 2380
- 2019-2020: 2284
- 2020-2021: 2055
- 2021-2022: 1832 (Merit’s first year)
- 2021-2022: 2119 – if you include the 287 Merit students
- 2022-2023: 2122
So, it’s clear that in 2020-2021, parents were opting out of the district, and Merit was a choice that brought them back. But the board has failed, so far, to attract new people to the district (well, three technically).