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Davin Midgley spent two years praying for his first day of kindergarten to arrive.
His prayers were answered Monday afternoon when he started school at Orchard Avenue Elementary. But like a handful of kids new to School District 51, his spot at the school closest to his home wasn’t secure until the last second.
For the fourth year in a row, Orchard Avenue Principal Denise Hoctor had to send kids to other schools because hers was full. There’s only so much classroom space and only so much money per pupil provided by the state to hire new teachers, Hoctor said. When the numbers don’t match up, kids get shuffled to schools with extra room.
The result is parents putting extra miles on their cars to get their kids to a school or schools that are farther away — although the district assigns kids to the nearest schools possible — and children not going to school with neighboring kids.
Already this year five students in Orchard Avenue boundaries have been sent to Tope Elementary and two more are awaiting reassignment. More could be on their way out shortly after starting school, depending on whether Hoctor gets the go-ahead to hire another fifth grade teacher. Scenic Elementary School, which only has two classrooms per grade, sent some students to Broadway Elementary.
Other schools could start moving the last students to be registered, according to District 51 Executive Director of Elementary Schools Andrew Laase. Laase declined to name schools, but said anyone who could be affected received a letter when they registered their son or daughter for school.
“It’s not our preferred way of handling overcrowded classrooms,” Laase said, but the district expects to have students in their permanent schools in the next few days.
School slots are first come, first serve, which is bad news for new families. After moving to Grand Junction from Ogden, Utah, this summer, Davin Midgley’s parents, Staci and Jared Midgley, were told their fifth grader might be shifted to Fruitvale and that Davin could go to a different school as well (which one hadn’t been decided).
The school’s kindergarten classes have up to 28 students apiece, and the school is about 30 students above last year’s 400 student mark.
“This one looked up at me and said, ‘Don’t they want me?’” Staci Midgley said, remembering Davin’s reaction to the phone call about his possible school switch. “Words like ‘overcrowding’ are foreign to them.’”
Hoctor said this is the fastest the school has filled up. She doesn’t think a boundary change will help, especially in the center of the city, because every boundary area is growing.
Mobility is nothing new in School District 51. Thirty-six percent of local elementary school students moved into the district in the past three years. Two-thirds of the remaining 74 percent have switched schools within the district in the last three years. Laase said those figures don’t include students switching schools because of overcrowding.
Jared Midgley was in the military for 10 years until recently and didn’t want his kids switching schools as soon as a few days into the new school year. His fifth grader is already on his ninth school.
“We’ve seen what it does,” Jared Midgley said. “I’ve seen it a lot with military families — typically their communication skills are not very good.”
Jared Midgley also questioned what overcrowding would do to test scores, personal attention and a parent’s ability to shuffle between parent-teacher conferences and school events if overcrowding pushed his four school-age children into different schools.
“The public schools need to be expanded,” he said.
The Midgleys said they knew housing would be hard to find in Grand Junction — it took them six months to find a home — but they thought single energy workers and college students were filling up houses. They didn’t know local schools are also filling up too.
Local schools will do a tentative child count today and have student numbers for state budgeting purposes in early October.
Reach Emily Anderson at eanderson@gjfreepress.com.
His prayers were answered Monday afternoon when he started school at Orchard Avenue Elementary. But like a handful of kids new to School District 51, his spot at the school closest to his home wasn’t secure until the last second.
For the fourth year in a row, Orchard Avenue Principal Denise Hoctor had to send kids to other schools because hers was full. There’s only so much classroom space and only so much money per pupil provided by the state to hire new teachers, Hoctor said. When the numbers don’t match up, kids get shuffled to schools with extra room.
The result is parents putting extra miles on their cars to get their kids to a school or schools that are farther away — although the district assigns kids to the nearest schools possible — and children not going to school with neighboring kids.
Already this year five students in Orchard Avenue boundaries have been sent to Tope Elementary and two more are awaiting reassignment. More could be on their way out shortly after starting school, depending on whether Hoctor gets the go-ahead to hire another fifth grade teacher. Scenic Elementary School, which only has two classrooms per grade, sent some students to Broadway Elementary.
Other schools could start moving the last students to be registered, according to District 51 Executive Director of Elementary Schools Andrew Laase. Laase declined to name schools, but said anyone who could be affected received a letter when they registered their son or daughter for school.
“It’s not our preferred way of handling overcrowded classrooms,” Laase said, but the district expects to have students in their permanent schools in the next few days.
School slots are first come, first serve, which is bad news for new families. After moving to Grand Junction from Ogden, Utah, this summer, Davin Midgley’s parents, Staci and Jared Midgley, were told their fifth grader might be shifted to Fruitvale and that Davin could go to a different school as well (which one hadn’t been decided).
The school’s kindergarten classes have up to 28 students apiece, and the school is about 30 students above last year’s 400 student mark.
“This one looked up at me and said, ‘Don’t they want me?’” Staci Midgley said, remembering Davin’s reaction to the phone call about his possible school switch. “Words like ‘overcrowding’ are foreign to them.’”
Hoctor said this is the fastest the school has filled up. She doesn’t think a boundary change will help, especially in the center of the city, because every boundary area is growing.
Mobility is nothing new in School District 51. Thirty-six percent of local elementary school students moved into the district in the past three years. Two-thirds of the remaining 74 percent have switched schools within the district in the last three years. Laase said those figures don’t include students switching schools because of overcrowding.
Jared Midgley was in the military for 10 years until recently and didn’t want his kids switching schools as soon as a few days into the new school year. His fifth grader is already on his ninth school.
“We’ve seen what it does,” Jared Midgley said. “I’ve seen it a lot with military families — typically their communication skills are not very good.”
Jared Midgley also questioned what overcrowding would do to test scores, personal attention and a parent’s ability to shuffle between parent-teacher conferences and school events if overcrowding pushed his four school-age children into different schools.
“The public schools need to be expanded,” he said.
The Midgleys said they knew housing would be hard to find in Grand Junction — it took them six months to find a home — but they thought single energy workers and college students were filling up houses. They didn’t know local schools are also filling up too.
Local schools will do a tentative child count today and have student numbers for state budgeting purposes in early October.
Reach Emily Anderson at eanderson@gjfreepress.com.
