Growing pains continue at CBCS

Secondary school seeing significant early enrollment numbers

by Olivia Lueckemeyer

Forty-four additional students are enrolled so far at the secondary level of the Crested Butte Community School for the 2016-2017 school year, which principal Stephanie Niemi says is quite abnormal this early in the year. While much of the growth can be attributed to the largest class in CBCS history moving from the elementary to the secondary school, 24 of those students are new enrollees, and perhaps even more unusual, a good number of them are freshmen.

“May has been the month of new enrollees,” Niemi said. “I’ve never seen so many kids enroll this early. We get new kids every year and lose kids every year, but new enrollees usually show up in July or August.”

Needless to say, the boom in growth is prompting administrators to get creative about how to accommodate such a large influx of students. It’s no secret that CBCS has been experiencing growing pains; RE1J superintendent Doug Tredway has already consulted with facility planners and a local development expert about possible expansion of the building.

“Doug and I met with a facility planner to think about this beyond the short term,” Niemi explained. “We will be looking at giving him information and seeing what he can do for us, but we will have to do something in between.”

Not much can be solved prior to the start of the upcoming school year, so in the short term Niemi has added an extra class section at the ninth-grade level, hired another teacher, and begun looking for ways to repurpose building space into two additional classrooms.

“I’m looking at redesigning some spaces,” Niemi said. “We have a very large storage room off of the cafeteria that can easily be converted into a classroom, so that’s one potential space.”

Even with the hiring of an additional math and science teacher, the secondary level is still falling short of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, so Niemi is doing what she can with available staff to fill the gap. Still, the district may be forced to hire one more FTE.

“I’m continuing to crank out on the schedule to try to pull it off, but we may need one additional FTE to make the schedule work,” she said.

Niemi playfully dubbed the phenomenon the “year of the freshmen” since nearly a third of the new enrollees are ninth-graders, consisting of both new and long-time county residents. As of now, the overall student count at the secondary level stands at 377 students, but as the figure climbs, administrators are beginning to wonder how much longer the current setup will be able to sustain growth.

“I think we can make it work, but what happens next year if we have this type of growth?” Niemi asked. “There are all sorts of things we can do but we want to hang onto this community school feeling as much as possible.”

Still, Niemi is confident that the staff and administration will rise to the occasion and play the hand they have been dealt.

“Our teachers have been great, and everyone will continue to be flexible and make it work, but you will be seeing some creativity,” she said. “We have a long history of enrollment increases, but this much early in the spring is definitely new for us and we will have to deal.”