There could be 25 fewer students enrolled in the fall in the Estes Park School as 70 seniors will graduate this spring and only 45 kindergarteners are set to start school in August, Superintendent Ruby Body told the School Board at Monday night’s meeting.
This is after a decline of 60 students this past year. According to the annual October count, the enrollment for 2024-2025 school year is 955 students, 445 fewer students than 20 years ago.
The school district receives $12,734.88 per enrolled pupil from the School Finance Act funding calculation. Twenty-five fewer students will decrease the school’s revenues by as much as $318,372.
Other parts of the state’s funding formula use the number of students who qualify for being at-risk for below average academic outcomes due to certain socioeconomic factors and who need special education services to add additional funds to the base.
Students who meet certain eligibility criteria for socioeconomic factors include those in foster care, those who are homeless or migrants, students who are runaways, those who have been in Head Start, students whose families receive SNAP, TANF, and support from the Colorado Department of Human Services’ Food Distribution Programs, students who live on an Indian Reservation, and those who are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Basic Health Plan.
As the school deals with declining enrollment, decisions will need to be made about staffing, said Bode, who explained that as instructors and other staff retire or move on, the schools may need to shift staff duties and responsibilities in order to fill the needs internally rather than to hire replacement staff.
Additionally the school budget will be affected by a decrease in the amount of property tax revenues collected by the district as several private properties – including 89 units at Fall River Village, 19 units at Beaver Brook on the River, and 16 units at the Grand Estates Apartments – have been acquired by the Estes Park Housing Authority portfolio for workforce housing and will no longer be paying the mill levy.
The Stanley Hotel is also expected to be sold to the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority soon in a $475 million bond purchase, further reducing the amount of money collected by the property mill levy.
According to Brian Lund, director of business services for the Estes Park School District R-3, the actual impact of the tax issues is not yet known. This year is also a reassessment year, which may mean changes in the assessed valuation of properties that remain on the tax rolls.
“If we see an increase in valuation, the loss will be offset. Any loss in tax revenue will be backfilled in the funding formula by the State,” explained Lund in an email to the Estes Valley Voice. At this time, the Estes Park Schools are not receiving any funding or equalization payments from the state.
Lund said that the biggest issue the school is facing as it prepares its 2025-2026 budget is that the school does not yet know what the state is going to do with the funding formula for next year.
“If they stay with what’s currently in state statute, we should remain level-funded compared to this year,” said Lund, who does not expect the state to fund the formula as it is currently written.
The legislature is expected to provide schools with information by the end of April so they can prepare their budgets for the upcoming school year.
“We currently don’t know what will pass in this year’s session to modify the formula,” said Lund.