School district fears funding loss

Shrinking enrollment means schools could lose $350,000 in state funding for 2025-26

Mary Stroka

NLJ Reporter

Weston County School District No. 1 business manager Angela Holliday said on Sept. 16 that if the present enrollment stays the same, the district could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funding.

A significant portion of the school funding formula is based on average daily membership, said Holliday, who hopes enrollment will rise by the end of the school year.

“I don’t know that we’ll get any more kids, but you never know,” she said. “Hopefully, we don’t lose any more.”

The district totals aren’t looking great, Superintendent Brad LaCroix told the News Letter Journal on Sept. 16. Average daily membership as of that date was 745, compared with 770 in May 2024, and the three-year rolling average, which affects state funding, remains a negative number.

“I think we’re looking at about $300,000 to $350,000 right now less (for the 2025-26 school year),” Holliday said, noting that those figures are currently hypothetical. She said, however, that she’s certain funding for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years would be affected as well.

The district’s principals reported enrollment numbers at the Aug. 28 school board meeting.

Elementary Principal Brandy Holmes said at the Aug. 28 meeting that her school’s enrollment as of that date was 321 students. The 2023-24 school year began with 338 students and ended with 347 students. Sixty-five students went on to sixth grade, and the school has only gained 43 kindergartners so far.

Middle school Principal Tyler Bartlett said the school’s enrollment has remained about the same as last year’s.

“I sent a large group, but I got a large group, so we’re pretty much right at 190, which is where we were last year. Up and down throughout the year, but that’s about right where we’ve been,” he said.

Eight students transferred in, and seven transferred out, he said. Six of the seven moved to other areas of the state or of the country, and the other student began attending the Wyoming Virtual Academy. Bartlett said one student decided to stay in the district and try the Cowboy Virtual Academy, which the district is piloting this year.

The news was more encouraging at Newcastle High School, where Principal Bryce Hoffman said that the school was at 234 students as of that day, compared with 221 last year.

“Tyler sent us a big class from the middle school, and so our freshman class is in the 70s,” Hoffman said. “I think we’ve settled at 74.”

In the past few years, high school graduating classes have been about 50, he said.

Some class sizes in freshman core classes are therefore bigger, but Hoffman believes that’s a good thing for English and math classes because larger groups create more opportunities for discussion. 

“The high school feels more full because it is (more full),” he said.

Aside from the large freshman class, Hoffman said he believes the high school lost about three students based on nine students leaving the district and six moving into the district.

Special ed population steady

Special education Director Taren Olson said at the Sept. 11 meeting that the district has begun this year serving about 140 students on individualized education plans and 504 plans. The 504 plans are named after Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The number of students with the services is “pretty even” compared with previous years.

She said in a follow-up email on Sept. 16 that, as of that date, the district was serving 133 students, but added that there are several evaluations in progress toward determining students’ eligibility for Wyoming special education services.

District wide, there are currently 19 students with a 504 plan and 132 with active IEPs. Nine students who had IEPs through the Weston County Children’s Center/Region III Developmental Center transitioned into Newcastle Elementary’s kindergarten, and a couple of those students participated daily in other local day cares.

“We’re amping up for our big haul of October IEPs because that’s when a lot of them happen,” she also said, noting that  “a large number” of kindergarten IEPs transition from the WCCC to the school district between October and Dec. 1. The district will host about 24 IEP meetings in October, which is “fairly similar” to the numbers in previous years. The transitions don’t typically occur earlier than that because of the need for data, she said. 

“Due to the nature of the IEP expiration date (one year minus a day from the meeting date), there is not much flexibility in scheduling,” she said. “It is challenging to host IEP meetings in September as teachers, staff and students have not had adequate time together to provide strong data and input to make appropriate programming decisions for their IEP; especially for students who are new to the district.”