Havre High student loss continues

Havre High School’s headcount of students has been dwindling for years and saw another drop this school year.

“It’s just a trend we’ve been seeing,” said Andy Carlson.

The elementary school’s numbers are looking pretty good, he added, but the high school is continuing to decrease.

For the 2014-2015 school year, the school district has 1,904 students, which is 57 fewer than the previous school year. Ten of those left the area or graduated from their 12th year of high school.

In incoming kindergarten student numbers, there was a 28-student drop from last school year.

However, the 2013-2014 school year saw a jump from the year prior with 1,961 from 1,926 students. The current school year’s headcount is lower than the two years prior to this jump in enrollment.

“It’s nothing alarming for us,” Carlson said. “We haven’t grown as a K-12 district for a number of years.”

There are several reasons for the drop in student numbers, including mobility on the Hi-Line and the aging population of Havre.

The drop in students will also drop state funding for the high school.

“One of things we have to do is we have to try and plan for what were going to look like down the road,” Carlson said. “We’ve got nice middle school classes, but we don’t have the middle school classes of 15 years ago. … There’s no denying that Havre High looks different now than it did 15 years ago.”

He said that there is some hope to reverse the direction of movement back to the Hi-Line with economic growth in the area. Hopefully, the growth will bring more young people to the area and they turn into larger families, he said.

He added that the change in students numbers always presents challenges, but he “wouldn’t say it’s doom and gloom.”

Despite the challenges of dropping student numbers, the school district is maintaining the same level of education to the children of the Hi-Line.

“We are doing our best to maintain current offerings to our students,” Carlson said. “I think we have done a good job doing that. Our priority will always be to offer the best education we possibly can. It’s been my priority from the start and it will continue to be our priority.”

He said that at the next Havre School District Board of Trustees meeting, they will compare the schools from 2001 to what they look like now to try and make a plan for the education system in Havre.

The next board meeting will be 6:30 p.m, today at Havre Middle School.