Big Horn 1 sees modest decrease in enrollment

Big Horn County School District No. 1’s  brick and mortar schools saw a modest decrease in enrollment this year, but an increase in student population in Wyoming Connections Academy and the lack of a larger trend have school officials not showing a large amount of concern. 

The biggest drop is in Rocky Mountain’s elementary school which went from an enrollment of 211 in January of last year to 181 students today. Superintendent Matt Davidson said much of that drop comes from incoming classes, noting kindergarten numbers dropped  28 last year to 13 this year. Burlington Elementary followed the pattern, going from a population of 138 to 109.

“If that continued year after year, that would be a problem, speaking of 30-40 kids a year, that will aggravate quickly,” Davidson said. “Hopefully, we’ll see some big groups come back in kindergarten, and hoping we can get some move ins and find a place to live. I think we need to see a trend of  multiple years before we express much concern.”

Other brick and mortar schools saw much less of a drop. 

The Rocky Mountain Middle School dropped from 87 students to 83. Rocky Mountain High School fell from 124 students to 121. 

Burlington Middle School saw a slight increase, moving from 49 students to 51. Burlington High School’s population has also not seen much fluctuation, recorded at 72 this year. 

Davidson said the fluctuations seen at the middle to high school levels are consistent with trends the district has seen over the years.

“For the longer term, this year’s numbers seem pretty consistent,” Davidson said.

The silver lining is Connections Academy. After peaking at more than 1,000 students during the height of COVID-19, the statewide online program shrunk to 545 students last year. This year enrollment has climbed again to 611. Since the program is housed within the district by the state, the district also receives funding for the students of Wyoming Connections Academy. 

“I think at this point, we’re going to be expecting them to be somewhere between 570 and 650 every year. That will be a constant, I think,” Davidson said. “They did just hire another staff member. The increase this year was beyond what we anticipated.”

Removing the increases of Connections Academy from the picture, Davidson said the decreases in enrollment for brick and mortar schools are not out of line with what is being seen statewide, and in many cases, Rocky’s numbers are less severe.

“Sheridan was down. Cheyenne was down several hundred students. Laramie was down 150 students,” Davidson said. “Wyoming is down in most areas. Enrollment statewide is decreasing.”

One of the  biggest limiting factors locally is housing, Davidson said. He cited a family Burlington schools lost only this week due to the family being unable to find a place to rent. They decided to move to Idaho, where they could find housing.

“Space-wise, within our schools, we’re fine, but housing is a continued issue for the communities in our district,” Davidson said. “There’s just not a lot of housing available for folks that would like to move into our communities.”