CB school sees major increase in enrollment

CBCS gets tight, adds new first grade class

Just three years after a major facility renovation, the Crested Butte Community School is starting to fill up. Enrollment at the school, as of Tuesday, August 14, was 643, up from 584 last year. The number of students already enrolled at CBCS is ahead of projections and could force the district to provide another first grade teacher at the Crested Butte Community School.

At a meeting Monday, August 12, RE1J superintendent Doug Tredway gave the school board an update on the number of students expected for the upcoming school year.
Crested Butte’s elementary classes are expected to see an increase in enrollment, with 51 students signed up for first grade. District policy allows for no more than 25 students in first grade classes, so Tredway said another section would be added at the school.
“In fourth grade, we budgeted for three [sections] and the enrollment is down to 52 and we will be able to manage that,” he said. “So we’re going to downsize in the fourth grade by one section. I will say if we get some increased numbers in the end we may have to pick that back up.”
If that happens, CBCS principal Stephanie Niemi said, things could start to get tight in the elementary wing. “If we go to three fourth grade sections, we’ll be short a classroom,” she said. “We’ll hopefully have everything flushed out by Thursday. We may have to get a bit creative in the elementary world.”
When the school opened in October of 1992, it had 302 students. The increase in enrollment is a good thing for the school and the district, Tredway reminded the board, since they mean more dollars coming to the district from the state funding formula.
“At Gunnison Elementary School, as of today the number sits at 85 in that first grade class and that would allow for three classes of 21 and one class of 22, and that’s lower than the limit, so we will not be pursuing another first grade teacher at GES,” Tredway said. “Spread out, the school has 22 new students, which is up from what we budgeted last year. But they are spread out as such that we will not need to add a class.”
Although administrators will have a better picture of enrollment when school starts at the end of the month, a final count for student enrollment for the year won’t be available until October.