Enrollment, funding down in Douglas

Fewer students enrolled in the Douglas County School District means less money received from the federal government.

The present Douglas County student population is 6,849, a decline of 361 students over the last two years.

"In today's dollars, it's a $2.2 million drop in total revenue for the past two years," said Director of Business Services Holly Luna at the Douglas County School District meeting Tuesday.

"Each school receives money depending on enrollment. Due to a decreased enrollment, we won't receive as much money so we have to adjust."

Luna said the capital improvement fund is made up of two parts - one part from the bond that ends by 2011. The other part depends on how many people live in the county and that number is decreasing.

"We'll have to look at using our resources to the best," she said.

Since its peak in the 1998-99 school year, the county's student population has been in decline.

Lake Tahoe schools suffered the highest decline with a loss of 69 students, or an 11 percent drop, in the past year.

The total enrollment for the three Tahoe schools is 558. Luna said she projects a population of 293 after grades 7-12 of Kingsbury Middle and Whittell High schools are consolidated after fall 2008.

Because some of the Valley's elementary schools have had an increase in enrollment, additional permanent classrooms will be built for either Piñon Hills or Minden elementary schools. Both are currently close to their capacities of 475 students.

"It will be a tough decision next year to see which school is awarded a new pod," Luna said.

Rich Alexander, assistant superintendent of Human Resources, said a decrease in student enrollment also means a need for fewer teachers.

"The big issue is declining enrollment affects our district because we are going to have to continue to do reductions in personnel," Alexander said. "We'll see retirement numbers jump up so hopefully that will take care of some of that but we're going to have to address this issue in our future.

"Enrollments in Washoe, Carson and Douglas school districts are down and Dayton is booming, fueled by the housing market."

Alexander said housing is an issue with teachers in Douglas. Many teachers in the district find Carson City and Dayton more affordable.

"A lot of our new teachers live in Carson and Dayton but as soon as a position opens in Dayton, they'll go there," he said.