On the front page of today's Fargo Forum is a picture of my boss, Tim Jacobson, and the school in which I teach at. The picture on the front page shows our elementary school in Mapleton, North Dakota. The population of our little town is approximately 700. Our school enrollment peaked at around 80 at the beginning of this new school year. Since our classrooms start at preschool and end at 6th grade, our average class size is around 11.
With that being said, this article is focusing on how North Dakota seems to be losing more and more school districts every year. I wanted to know more about the reasons behind this.
According to the article, in 1985 North Dakota had 312 districts. Today, there are only about half that many. "Every year, we have one or two (districts that close or consolidate)," said Jerry Coleman, the state's school finance director. I found out that it's partially to do with a districts loss of money or families with children move.
Here's one example of why Eureka School District near Minot, North Dakota closed its doors for the last time last week: FIVE STUDENTS WERE ENROLLED! This school, prior to just closing had a 100-plus year history of staying open for their community.
Why is North Dakota's population declining? According to a graph located on the front page by the principal of our school, in 1994 the enrollment in public K-12 schools in ND was up to almost 120,000. There shows a significant decline and in 2009 the numbers were less than 95,000. North Dakota Department of Public Instruction predicts the numbers will continue to drop to around 92,000 in 3 years!
Like I said, the school in which I teach at has an enrollment of about 80 students. Our school only goes up to 6th grade. In years past, Mapleton used to go up to 12th grade. Because of the numbers decreasing, Mapleton is now considered only an elementary school. However, we are one of the lucky districts, our numbers are increasing year after year unlike most small districts in the state.
According to North Dakota School Superintendent Wayne Sanstead, North Dakota has declined by 2,000 children each year for the past 15 years, though it's now slowed to about 500 fewer children a year.
Economics could also be a factor for the decline in student enrollment. 20 years ago children were one-third of North Dakota's population. In just a few years from now, children could only make up of about one-quarter of the state's population. Agriculture has slowed considerably since the 1980's.
Every year Mapleton has to endure the "what if's. What if we have to close down? What if our numbers decline? What if our little community of around 700 changes? As a community, as a district, as parents, as teachers, we want answers to the possible "what if's.
What are the solutions? Is there a possible solution to help our school and other schools in North Dakota to keep their doors open? Government officials and legislators are trying to find solutions to this problem.
To read more on this article in the Fargo Forum go to: http://www.inforum.com/
This could affect you as an educator, too!
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Denise,
ReplyDeleteBeing in Georgia I would have never heard this news. Its hard for me to imagine a declining population because Georgia is constantly growing. A friend of mine teaches at a middle school with almost 3,000 children with 32 in each classroom. In many ways I am having the opposite issue as you. As the number of students rise in Georgia the number of students allowed in a classroom does as well. This year our state passed a law that up to 33 children could be in our classrooms at one time. Three times as many as you stated above. I could not imagine teaching a class of 11 and I would imagine that it would be difficult if any type of illness broke out around the school. We had over 100 children out on Friday and I hardly noticed they were gone.
I see you mentioned that the economy may have played a part in this problem. I am not from North Dakota so I am not familiar with the industries. Have industries left or closed recently? I know that as job close in many of Georgia smaller towns the population decreases. I can see how you would be worried about your job. With no children who are you going to teach? I am so sorry you have to live in a state of "what ifs." I completely understand your feeling. For two months we waited to find out if we would have a job over the summer. Instead of cutting jobs my county furloughed us three days for this year and possible more for next year. Keep your head up. It will get better.
Blaire
Hi Denise, very interesting article. I live in Fargo and I often don't pick up the paper because many articles like this depress me. :( What is happening to our schools? I work in Kindred and our population has been steady but the numbers that were in the article you found were amazing. I had no idea it was decreasing that much especially when schools like West Fargo are busting at the seams. That makes me think it is the smaller communities that are shrinking. Do you think a large part of college graduates don't return to the small towns to start their families? My mom was stating in her generation most boys never left the family farm or at least they came back to take over the farm so it kept small towns going. Most of my friends who are college graduates came from smaller towns and I only know one who went back to her home town. Most have moved to a bigger city (Fargo and Bismarck) or have the left the state completely. Maybe the state needs to do more to keep the small towns going or keeping young people here. If I wasn't so close to my family I don't know if I would still be living her myself. I would love to see ND schools do well because ND is a great place to grow up. I hope Mapleton can make it as well but for your sake as a teacher there I do feel your school officials should have a back up plan incase the doors close.
ReplyDeleteHello Denise,
ReplyDeleteWow, I had no idea it was so bad in ND. At BSC our enrollments are up and the cities of Bismarck and Mandan are fine. I think the major problem is the small time farmer in those smaller towns is no more. Farmers I know are buying each other out and where there was 10 farms in an area there is 4 maybe. Few young people see small town living as fun and want to try new things. I did.
I don't think there is any easy solution to our state's problem. It is happening all through the Midwest. As Blair said, "Keep your head up!"
It seems as though many parents and students are leaving the state. I would also attribute some of the decline to the recession. I did a research project in another class her at VCSU and found that the unemployment rate was extremely high in the state. When people can't find work in one area, they tend to move. Another reason that comes to mind is that the population is growing older or those graduating from ND institutions are not staying in state and starting families. As my wife states in an earlier comment, Georgia classrooms are going the opposite way and new districts and schools are not being built fast enough in certain areas. One of the biggest problems in my county is schools making AYP every year. Every school in my county is a Title I school and has some of the lowest of the low-income families in suburban GA. When schools fail AYP, parents can transfer their kids to other schools and other systems.
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