For the fifth consecutive year, the Española School District will see a decline in the number of enrolled students.
Recent data shows the District lost 239 students between this year’s and last year’s 80- and 120-day averages. The averages are used to determine how much money is needed to educate the students taking classes in the District.
Since the 2013 School Year, the District lost a total of 714 students. That year, 332 students left. There are currently 3,626 students enrolled.
While many will agree the decline after the 2013 School Year can be attributed to McCurdy Charter School’s transition from a private parochial school to a charter school, there seems to be no viable explanation for the District’s substantial student population loss in the years that followed.
Because of the decline in student population this year, the District will lose more than $500,000 in revenue, in accordance with the state’s public school funding formula.
As Board members explore ways to lessen the impact of the pending revenue decline, some District employees and community members want to make sure those cuts won’t make the school system less attractive to perspective students.
Española Valley High School English Teacher John Sena said although spending reductions are inevitable, the District should be cautious about making cuts that further erode the education offered to students.
Sena, who sits on the Budget Development Committee, said instead of cutting programs, the District should explore ways to implement longterm improvements.
“My analogy at the end of our meeting (Committee meeting) was, in a recession we don’t cut, we spend,” he told the School Board during an April 27 meeting. “I know we have to make cuts, but we have to make sure we invest and look at the quality of what we are providing.”
He said whether it’s administration, programming or teachers, it comes back to improving quality. If the Board doesn’t start investing in improving programs, the District will continue to make adjustments for budget shortfalls caused by student loss.
“We are going to find ourselves in this same position over and over again until we don’t have any students left,” Sena said.
The enrollment decline following the 2013 School Year was something unavoidable and somewhat “acceptable,” considering a new charter school opened, he said.
However, the high school English teacher said there doesn’t seem to be any real data looking at why students are leaving the school system.
“We lost students when we got another charter school, McCurdy became a charter, so part of that is explainable,” he said. “We have other schools that we are competing against, we need to look at what they are offering that we aren’t offering.”
School Board Vice President Yolanda Salazar said, in talking with students over the years, she learned the District has cut many trade programs that appeal to area students.
“They don’t offer electricity and wood-carving programs like they did when I was in school,” she said. “I agree with you, that we need to bring some of that back. That is why some of our students are going to other schools.”
High School Counselor Margaret Alire agreed. She said the District needs to do more to provide educational opportunities to all of its students, as opposed to catering to the needs of certain types of student.
She said the few vocational and elective classes the District does offer are underfunded and crowded.
“You try and fit 40 or 50 people in your kitchen and cook and be effective,” she said. “That is what Ms. (Marcie) Davis faces everyday. Besides, she doesn’t have anything to cook. The kids bring in what they can. These programs need funding.”
Davis is the school’s culinary arts teacher.
Alire said the District should provide more opportunities for students who aren’t interested in going to college.
“The kids they want to be chefs,” she said. “They want to be welders and woodworking artists. We have to work on those programs. I understand we have to get math, science and history, but not everyone fits that shoe, I guess.”
Former District parent Roiba Sanchez said after her oldest daughter graduated from Española Valley High School in 2014, she decided to enroll her remaining school-aged child in the Pojoaque district, in hopes of ensuring she gets a well-rounded education.
“It is well known that my youngest daughter doesn’t go to school in the District,” she told the Board. “She is in the sixth grade and she has choir every day and she has math enrichment every day and they are teaching her algebraic expressions. Next year, she is looking at guitar, choir or photography and that is in the seventh grade.”
She said after her older daughter’s experience at Española Valley High School, finding a school that has a robust offering of elective classes influenced her decision.
“That was a big choice for me,” Sanchez said. “My daughter didn’t have many electives at the High School. I can provide them with what they need educationally, but we aren’t providing the extra support to make them enjoy going to school.”
The Española School District isn’t the only area school system losing students. Mesa Vista School Board President John Garcia said his District’s enrollment count for funding purposes this upcoming fiscal year, has dropped to a low of 250 students. The student decline could be considered significant, especially when the District had 375 students during the 2013-2014 School Year.
Garcia said he believes the decline is an indication of the region’s changing economy, as opposed to dysfunction.
“In small towns like El Rito and La Madera, there isn’t much left for people to do,” he said. “The world has become more technology-oriented and people go out of town to find jobs and they don’t come back. It is a shame to see them (small towns) die away like this.”