SEQUIM — The Sequim School District is considering possibly moving students from Greywolf Elementary School in Carlsborg to Helen Haller Elementary in Sequim later this month if staff are unable to find a solution to crowded classes.
Greywolf Elementary has grown in student population by 100 students in the past two years, School Superintendent Gary Neal said, describing the overcrowding as at a “critical level.”
Neal said in a news release Thursday, the second day of school in Sequim, that district administrators are now looking to partners in the community for potential solutions.
“We recognize the stress placed upon the students, families and staff. We are actively seeking solutions, knowing there are no good answers right now,” Neal said in a news release.
“An equitable process for redistribution of students will occur as soon as possible; however, if no other viable solutions materialize by Sept. 15, the district will then be calling on families to voluntarily move their student(s) to Helen Haller Elementary.”
Neal was unavailable for further comment Friday.
Sequim School Board President Heather Short said there was some discussion in recent weeks about the possibility of increased enrollment this year.
“We had an idea things might be bigger, but we didn’t know for sure,” she said.
Short said transferring students to Helen Haller is still just a possibility and that the district is still researching other options.
School totals
At the end of June 2016, Greywolf Elementary had the equivalent of 501 full-time students, while Helen Haller had 619. Helen Haller’s enrollment stayed static for most of the 2016-17 school year, finishing at 618 in June 2017, while Greywolf’s enrollment jumped to 548.
Initial enrollment counts this week at Sequim’s schools show Greywolf’s enrollment has ballooned to 590, while Helen Haller’s has risen to 628.
Current average class sizes at Helen Haller remain low compared to Greywolf, according to district officials.
District figures indicate average class sizes for first through fourth grade at Helen Haller are between 21 and 22 students, while Greywolf is running 23.5 to 30 students per class in those same grade levels.
Greywolf had its largest average class size of 30 students in three sections of third grade as of Thursday.
The school’s next highest averages were an average class size of 26.75 students in four sections of first grade (107 students total), and a 26.25 average class size in fifth grade in four sections (105 students total).
At Helen Haller, the fifth-grade classes hold the highest average with 27 students per four sections (106 total), followed by third grade with 22 students per classroom (five teachers with 111 students).
Sequim School District officials began enforcing stricter boundary lines starting at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.
They’ve also stopped accepting any new “out-of-district” requests for the 2017-18 school year, the district’s website states.
This includes siblings from non-resident families who have children already attending Sequim schools.
‘Best-worst option’
“Each student who arrives at our doorstep is valued, regardless of limited resources,” Neal said.
“[But] with limited fiscal resources, our worst-best option right now is to move students from Greywolf Elementary to Helen Haller Elementary,” he said.
“Limitations in state funding have prevented the district from addressing the problem.”
Greywolf Elementary gained classroom space coming into the 2017-18 school year when state legislators in 2016 appropriated $5.5 million for design and construction of 10 cross-laminated timber buildings between the Sequim, Seattle, Mount Vernon, Wapato and Toppenish school districts.
The funding was part of an effort to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade.
At that time, Brian Lewis, then the Sequim schools’ director of business services, said staff made the decision to install the new buildings at Greywolf because Helen Haller is at capacity.
“Haller can’t handle anymore kids,” he said.
Helen Haller Elementary’s campus features 13 classrooms in seven portable buildings. Greywolf has four classrooms in two portables.
The Sequim School District’s board of directors had sent four bond proposals to voters since April 2014, and all had failed.
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Michael Dashiell, the editor of the Sequim Gazette and Erin Hawkins, a Gazette reporter, are members of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Dashiell can be reached at editor@sequimgazette.com. Hawkins can be reached at ehawkins@sequimgazette.com.
