The COVID-19 pandemic will cost the West Liberty School District hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue due to the fact enrollment is down 64 students this year, board members learned Monday, Oct. 19, at the regular meeting of the district held at the administrative offices on Elm Street.
The certified figures that drive federal and state aid for education is down about five percent, falling from 1,312 students a year ago to 1,247. With state aid set at $7,048 per student according to business manager Abby Ortiz, the district stands to loose as much as $451,000 this school year.
The biggest drop came at the elementary school, where there is a difference of 63 students including 28 fourth graders, 22 first graders and 18 fifth grade students. The only class that saw a gain was in the third grade, climbing from 84 to 100.
The fifth grade figures are deceiving as the sixth grade class now at the West Liberty Middle School, rose from 93 to 122 students.
School officials said that drop-off isn’t unusual across the state, noting many other school districts are experiencing the same kind of changes in numbers. Business manager Abby Ortiz said even Ankeny, which has always shown growth year after year, was down this year.
They said many students may be home schooled this year because of the pandemic, parents concerned about their children getting the best education or the coronaviras with the school district’s hybrid or virtual education models in place.
The district has contacted or made an attempt to contact families who were enrolled last year but decided not to enroll this year, finding all kinds of reasons not to attend classes at WLSD this year.
In other business, new activities director Adam Loria gave updates on sports, fine arts and remodeling. He said the new gym floor at the middle school has been installed, with sanding of the surface and striping still to be completed, noting it may be two to three more weeks before the gym can be used again. “It looks really nice,” he said. Many of the activities have been moved to the elementary school gym.
He also gave a report on a new video system installed in the West Liberty High School gym, bringing the capability of streaming live events to residents.
He said the school is experimenting with the content and finding ways to get content on the Internet social pages, including utilizing You-Tube. He said coaches may also find the system useful for practices. He said the system, which includes three different cameras, will even turn itself on 15 minutes before a scheduled event.
The AD also talked about the success of the football and volleyball teams and their upcoming schedules as well as other events planned for the high school.
He said seventh and eighth grade wrestling is also starting soon in the district and gave statistics on the success Iowa has had in fall sports this season despite the pandemic, citing statistics on the number of schools which have participated, noting of the few that did not, they were in the Des Moines metropolitan area. He also said the COVID-19 virus wasn’t a major issue, likely because of procedures put in place to guard against the pandemic.
The board also approved a West Liberty High School fundraiser for girls basketball, the estimated 25 members of the varsity and junior varsity teams team selling cookie dough bginning Nov. 11. The teams hope to raise $1,500 with the promotion, to be used to buy equipment including jerseys, travel gear, camp, shootouts, team meals, snacks, team clothing and a ball cage. Matthew Hoeppner is advisor for the group and will supervise the fund-raiser.
The district board also made three new hires including Patricia Escobedo as the new central office administrative assistant to replace the retiring Melody Henderson. Troy Wulf was also hired as seventh grade girls basketball coach and Stephanie Jacques was hired as an Early Learning Center paraprofessional.
All American Concrete of West Liberty was awarded the winter maintenance contract to remove snow, as well as salt and sand icy areas as necessary.
The district set Monday. Nov. 2, for their next board meeting, to begin at 6 p.m.