Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
This year’s first reported number of students choosing to opt in and out of the Colfax School District has been posted and shows small increases over last year. A report on the numbers was presented at Monday’s school board meeting.
The Colfax enrollment figures depict a growing trend of families “choicing out” with 76 students for the new 2012-13 school year compared to 46 choosing to go elsewhere four years ago.
The numbers for previous years account for movement throughout the school calendar.
The 2012-13 choice transfers include 21 students choosing into the district, with the 76 choosing out. Last year, 71 students chose out while 19 came in.
This year’s number of students choosing out includes 37 going to Pullman, 22 to Steptoe for elementary grades and 10 to online schools, among other options.
The total for choosing-out includes 37 students who live in the Colfax district but have never been enrolled in Colfax.
Home-school kids, 24 students from 11 families, are also included.
There are five part-time students at Colfax High School.
“I don’t discourage parents that feel that another option serves them better,” Colfax Supt. Michael Morgan. told school directors at Monday’s meeting.
Morgan told the Gazette Tuesday he believes Colfax has “a really good program for the size of district we have; our test scores are higher than they’ve ever been; we offer many extracurricular activities, but I know we’re not going to meet the needs of all parents and students. At the same time, we do ask if there’s something we can do differently.”
Reasons listed by the district for “choicing out” of the Colfax district include financial, educational, safety or health conditions, accessibility to a parent’s work and special hardships affecting the student or the student’s family.
The district is now looking into offering daycare and making it an educational experience, said Morgan. They are also considering a home-link program, which would provide a teacher and a space at the school for home-school or other students to come in for one class such as science or math.
Morgan said that the district would pay a teacher a stipend and could potentially afford to offer the home-link for as few as 10 kids.
“We’re not sure if there are enough,” Morgan said. “First we have to find out what the need is, and if a teacher is willing do that.”
Morgan suggested the benefit in this is more than academic.
“Where I worry about home-school kids is if they’re not involved in group activities for the social development aspect,” he said.
As is, the classes the Colfax district offers are available to home-school kids on a per-class basis.
The kids that come in for one or two classes are seen in enrollment reports as the decimal points which make up the full-time equivalents on which the state funds school districts.
Morgan said that the Colfax District now offers more online options.
“We’re offering more online courses than we’ve ever offered,” he said.
During seventh period at the high school, one teacher monitors a room with kids taking individual online courses, from art appreciation to British literature to sciences and history. The district has bought 25 licenses for the classes, which come through Plato Learning.
The overall Colfax district student population has decreased in recent years. In 2008-09, the monthly enrollment average was 652.64 students while last year’s was 605.44. The official number for October dropped below 600 to 594.38.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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