Weld Re-8 enrollment jump may be tied to energy boom

    FORT LUPTON – Big news for the Weld Re-8 School District, in terms of student population.
    Student numbers are up in the district for the first time since 2001, showing significant and positive growth in the community.
    Preliminary results for the October student count data shows an increase of approximately 66 students.
    “We have a net increase in funded pupil count of 66.54,” Re-8 superintendent Mark Payler confirmed last week. “Last year we were at 2,214.9. This year, the funded count is 2,271.94.”
    The bump, while significant, is just a step toward reducing drops over the last decade from historical highs.
    “We are still 216 lower than our high in 2001 and still 36 lower than 2006. But we are starting to make up for those declines now,” Payler said. “It’s moving the trajectory in the right direction. There were some pretty sizable years where we dropped off – maybe 100 kids. But we feel like we are finally going in the right direction again.”
    At a loss to explain the demographics behind the bump, speculation runs to the recent oil boom, as companies such as Halliburton beef up their workforce.
    Broken out, the largest increase by far was in Fort Lupton Middle School, with a bump upward of 37 students in seventh grade alone. Butler Elementary also saw significant gains, pushing first, second and third grades, with 12, 19 and 18 funded students respectively. 
    “None of this is official until CDE accepts it. There is a lot of data that needs to be transmitted to them, and then they would accept it,” Payler said, adding that the district’s conservative estimates for the year should provide some additional funding for this year’s budget.
    “We had budgeted down the equivalent of 25 students, so the net effect would be the 66 plus 25,” Payler said. “But it gets averaged in, so it will not be that high.”
    What the numbers translate into is a recalibration of funding in December. Each month, the district receives 1/12 of the year’s funding from the state, based on projections set in May. At the start of the new fiscal year in July, the state begins to transmit funding to the districts. In question is how much, if any, new funding will result from the bump, with finances in jeopardy across the state.
    “There was a pot of $17 million that they found at the end of last year that they rolled forward to use this year. But there is some discussion that last year they didn’t use that to pick up those increases,” Payler said. “That is what happened in Brighton, for example. So if you are a growing district, you may not necessarily pick up those differences.
    “That’s not good at all, because you are trying to support more students with the same resources,” Payler continued. “In my opinion, that’s not fair. For someone like Brighton, the difference could mean additional teachers, full-time staff or larger classrooms or whatever to accommodate that growth.”
    Payler remains cautiously optimistic, hoping for the best as lawmakers sort out the budget for the year.
    “It looks like this is headed in the right direction, if things bear out,” Payler said. “If the Legislature says they will fund the additional kids, which they should, then it should result in some additional dollars.”
    If that happens, Payler said the district is looking at possibly revisiting base salaries, something they have foregone for the past few years, during upcoming negotiations with the teachers union in February.
    “It’s great news,” Payler said. “We will take every student we can, and for all the right reasons.”
    We want to make sure we provide an opportunity for our students and a quality education.”

Contact Staff Writer Gene Sears at gsears@metrowestnewspapers.com or 303-659-2522 ext. 217.