CHIMACUM — Where have all the students gone?
Chimacum Superintendent Rick Thompson is on a quest to find some answers. That information likely will shape the district’s coming school year in several ways, including possible layoffs and consolidation of some programs.
The Chimacum School Board voted Wednesday night to allow a reduction in staff and reorganization of programs based on projected enrollment figures for the 2018-19 school year. There were no public comments during the meeting.
“Chimacum Schools have had a declining enrollment for several years,” Thompson said, “but it was a very modest decline of 1-2 percent. This year, we are experiencing a higher rate.”
The district currently has 944 students enrolled in kindergarten thorough 12th grades.
“We lost 100 students in the last year. That’s almost 10 percent, and that’s hard,” he said.
Thompson said the decline isn’t tied to any particular grade.
“I believe a lot of the decline is economically based, centered around employment. Also, Jefferson is an older county, and the birth rate is modest.”
Thompson believes there are many educational options for parents and students.
“We are in a competitive environment with online choices, there are more choices than there used to be. Some kids leave because their parents work in a different place. Some students opt to go to Port Townsend. There are some issues with housing and family wage jobs. We’re not going to come up with a simple answer.”
District officials will spend time in the next quarter crunching numbers.
“We can’t establish an operating budget with an actual number,” Thompson explained. “It’s a projection based on historical data and what we know about birthrates and kindergarten.
“If enrollment goes down, then we have to anticipate a certain number of staff. We can avoid layoffs if we have a lot of attrition, lots of retirement, people taking leave, people moving out of the area. We don’t expect we’ll be offering a lot of new jobs; however, there may be some.
“Right now,” he continued, “it looks like we’ll have to reduce a few positions. That means a handful of teachers, some classified hours, some will leave thorough attrition. It’s not really different than what’s happened in the past. We’ve had a lot of retirement go through here already. So now the choices down the road are going to get tougher if the enrollment continues to decline.
“These are all very difficult decisions,” Thompson said.
Since Chimacum voters did not pass a bond, Thompson said there isn’t an extensive amount of money to do big capital projects.
“We improve the best spaces we have. We’re looking at how we can use our best capital asset to provide the best K-12 education possible. If we can, we’ll take the oldest space out of circulation so we don’t have to heat or maintain it.
“We have some buildings that would not be a good use of public money to try to improve or remodel: a maintenance shop that’s not in good shape; Chimacum elementary school was built in 1948 and remodeled a few years ago; there’s a 50-year old brick building that’s hard to repair.
“If enrollment trends continue, we’ll have more space than we have students,” he said. “Reducing the footprint is most likely what we’ll have to do. When we have multiple facilities on two separate campuses with over 200,000 square feet and not a growing student population, you have to make some choices.”
He’s looking into what the district wants to invest in, what’s the best grade configuration given the new input and what’s the best administrative support team that can be assembled.
“Right now we have a principal for every couple hundred kids. That’s not sustainable,” Thompson said.
”Typically districts have a principal for 400 to 500 kids. We’re not overstaffed, but long term, all operations —whether custodial or teaching, support or administration — we have to look at the most economical way to do it. Part of the solution is how we configure our facilities. “
The board has authorized more than $600,000 in projects to be done this summer.
“Our objective is to use capital money to enhance existing space and then have some hard conversations about how to put K-12 in the best spaces we have. There’s no one way to do it. Frankly, I don’t think it is in anyone’s best interests to put new money into old buildings, except where we have to, especially when it comes to student safety.”
During the next few months, Thompson and the board will collect data and make some hard decisions to start the school year next fall.
“We have to become more efficient and economical, be wiser on how we spend money. We have to review where we can consolidate services,” Thompson said.
“These are very hard choices to make.”
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-3225 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com
