PORT ANGELES — Anyway they’re divided, the grim attendance projections for the Port Angeles School District add up to a grim task of cost-cutting measures.
A facilities efficiency task force, similar in structure to the one that resulted in the closure of Monroe Elementary in 2004, is being formed.
However, district officials haven’t stated a specific mission for the task force.
Attendance projections for the school district show a continued enrollment decline over the next five years.
About 360 full-time students are expected to leave the district by 2011, resulting in about $1.8 million of lost cumulative revenue.
“We are trying to be proactive, and we’re basing our actions on our projections,” School Board President Jeff Hinds said.
“I think there’s a lot of different ideas out there about what we might do.”
Creative options sought
Projections show the loss of students at the elementary school level is stabilizing, and closing an elementary school may not be the most viable option, Hinds said.
“There’s not enough capacity to close an elementary [school] outright, so we have to be a little more creative than that,” he said.
Despite the projected stabilization at the elementary school level, the district is still absorbing a loss of about 380 full-time elementary school students over the last eight years.
That loss is now trickling through the system and the brunt of projected declines will be at the high school level.
Over the next six years, the district expects to loose about 330 full-time high school students.
“There has to be a multi-prong approach to this issue,” said board member Patti Happe.
Happe was elected to the board on Nov. 8 and was appointed by the board at its Monday meeting to represent them on the task force.
“I’m the newest member [on the board], but this is an issue I’ve been involved with for a long time,” she said.
