Citing large class sizes, Weiser school district trustees close some grades to open enrollment

Weiser School District trustees have closed enrollment to students residing outside of the attendance area, citing class sizes at the middle school and high school that are at capacity.

 The school board took the action in September after approving three out-of-district requests. The board closed open enrollment for grades six through 11 through the rest of the school year.

 Superintendent Wil Overgaard said nearly all of the grade levels at Weiser Middle School and the high school have more than 130 students. The 10th grade at the high school is the largest with 141 students. 

 Overgaard said the district is not staffed for that many kids at Weiser Middle School or high school. The high school is still short at least one math teacher and one English teacher from the recession of a decade ago. 

 Class sizes in the core academic classes at both the middle school and high school are near or over 30 students, he said. 

 The grade levels at Pioneer Elementary School and Park Intermediate School (K-5) are all less than 115 students (except grade 1 with 121 students) and trustees did not close those grades to open enrollment requests from students living outside the attendance area.  

 The open enrollment closure only applies to students living outside the district’s attendance area who are seeking to attend Weiser schools. 

 Currently, there are 17 students attending Weiser schools from Payette and 12 high school students who reside in Annex, Ore., right across the river from Weiser.

 The school district has a long-standing agreement to enroll the Annex students at Weiser High School and the Annex school board pays tuition for them to attend.

 The Weiser School District also receives funds from the state for Payette students who enroll in the district. 

 Payette students attending Weiser schools have to provide their own transportation or parents must drop their children off at a bus stop within the attendance area.

 The school district cannot turn away any students living within the attendance area.

 The district’s student count this year is close to the 30-year average enrollment of 1,600, and the trend over the past couple of years has been upward. Last week, the enrollment stood at 1,584 students in the district. 

 A breakdown of the enrollment numbers at the middle school shows 133 students in sixth grade, 137 in seventh grade and 133 in eighth grade, according to figures from the school district. 

 At the high school level, the sophomore class is the largest at 141 students, while the freshman class is 138 students. The junior class is 135 students and the senior class is the smallest at the high school with 111 students.

 Overgaard said administrators will continue to monitor the enrollment numbers for the next few years at WMS and WHS as these larger classes pass through. 

 “They will definitely impact our class loads and teacher needs in the near future, but we’ve made no decisions about staffing for next year yet,” he said in an email to the Weiser Signal American. 

 “We will look at those needs in the spring as we begin preparing our budget for next year,” he said.

 The state conducts an official count of students in districts each fall. Those numbers are used to calculate state funding for school districts. 

 Idaho uses an average daily attendance calculation to fund schools right now, but that could change in the future. 

 A legislative interim committee has recommended that Idaho move to a student-centric, enrollment-based model of funding. 

 Some lawmakers have said the current funding formula is confusing.