Enrollment slides — District leaders monitor budget amid enrollment drop

Enrollment at Weston County School District No. 1 schools declined again this year, and enrollment at local preschools isn’t faring much better.

Superintendent Brad LaCroix said at the Oct. 29 meeting of the district’s board of trustees that the most substantial
issue the district is facing is declining enrollment. It will most likely take a larger toll on the budget for 2026-27, according to LaCroix.

LaCroix said at the meeting that the district isn’t the only one concerned about losses in student numbers, although concerns are more likely to plague districts that are the same size or smaller than WCSD No. 1.

“Public education continues to have its challenges, and that’s just going to present itself as one of them,” he said.

On July 16, the school board approved a $16.95 million proposed general fund budget on July 16 for the 2025-26 school year, which includes $12.85 million from state reimbursements (state revenues include federal funding funneled via states).

At the Oct. 29 board meeting, the board approved the first-quarter financial report, which said that the district spent $2.6 million of the $16.95 million in the first quarter, or 15% of its budget. 

LaCroix said at the meeting that the district is on track with previous years.

“Looking at trend basis, we are about where we normally are within the budget,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any cause for concern or despair.”

Angela Holliday, the district’s business manager, said on Oct. 31 that while the projected state funding has remained the same, “I think we always have to be concerned with federal funding.”

LaCroix said at the board meeting that district officials had received “quite a bit of concern” about how the district would respond if federal funding became unavailable for free and reduced lunches, especially at Newcastle Elementary School, because of the district’s discontinuation of the federal lunch program.

“We’re going to continue to take care of kids,” he said. “There won’t be a difference in services or treatment, regardless of what happens at the federal level.”

More going than coming

On Sept. 16, the district’s enrollment was 711, with 223 at Newcastle High School, 199 at Newcastle Middle School and 289 at Newcastle Elementary School, according to an enrollment report provided to the News Letter Journal.

Last year (Sept. 16, 2024), average daily membership was 745, compared with 770 in May 2024, as the NLJ reported at the time.

At the Aug. 28, 2024, school board meeting, NES Principal Brandy Holmes said her school’s enrollment was 321, down from 347 at the end of the 2023-24 school year. NMS Principal Tyler Bartlett said his school’s enrollment was around 190, same as the previous year, and NHS Principal Bryce Hoffman said his school’s enrollment was 234, up from 221 in the 2023-24 school year. High school graduating classes have been around 50, according to Hoffman, and the total number of seniors at NHS on Sept. 16 was 50, according to the report. 

Unfortunately, this year’s kindergarten class is 37, based on that date’s report. And Francie Gregory, the executive director of the Weston County Children’s Center/Region III Developmental Services, told the NLJ that the situation doesn’t appear to be improving. She said enrollment is declining overall, though this year has been a little higher than in the previous couple of years.

“It is in the pre-K numbers where we really notice the difference though,” she said.

She said that 25 students who will be 5 by Aug. 1, 2026, are enrolled in the center’s Newcastle preschool, and enrollment has been 20 to 25 for the past few years. Before then, though – possibly before the COVID-19 pandemic – the number of children who were one year out from kindergarten was about 40, according to Gregory.

“We have resolved ourselves to believing this is just the norm for numbers of children currently, as class sizes have decreased for the elementary school as well,” she said. “I do not have data to reflect on the cause, whether it be a smaller population for our community or an increase in home school attendance. Possibly both could contribute to lower numbers.”

Sheila Gregory, the owner of Custom Care Day Care, told the NLJ that because she’s a sole proprietor, she’s always nervous about filling her day care until it has reached its capacity of 10. In certain years, five children at once have departed to go to kindergarten.

“I have gone years where I haven’t been able to fill all my openings. After I go through my waiting list, I will call the other day cares and let them know (if they are full) to send families my way. And then I pray!” she said. “I truly worry about the lack of numbers, the dwindling young families and of course the community as a whole.”

Eight of the 10 current participants in Gregory’s program are the children of teachers, so few students are in the day care during the summers, she added.