CVSD sees most growth

Enrollment figures for Spokane Valley school districts fluctuated greatly this year.

Based on numbers released this month, the most significant increase was in the Central Valley School District, where the student count is up 308 students over last year.

The district has the equivalent of 11,087 full-time students.

The East Valley School District has 90 fewer students this year than last, with 4,172 full-time equivalencies.

West Valley remained fairly even, going up 11 students for a total of 3,537 full-time students.

The Freeman School District was down 11 students, with 846 full-time equivalencies.

The actual head count is different than what is called full-time equivalent, based on how students are counted. For instance, kindergartners are in school for only part of the day, and therefore count as a half of a full-time equivalent student.

All of the districts had more students than predicted, which is good news for school budgets.

The number of full-time equivalent students affects how much state funding a school can receive. Typically, a school receives about $4,000 per full-time student. Some students with special needs get more.

“It’s all about making it over or under budget. It’s huge,” said Doug Matson, West Valley’s assistant superintendent. West Valley was 38 students over budget this year.

West Valley’s numbers changed significantly between buildings this year, because 194 kindergartners were removed from the Millwood Early Childhood Education Center and put into regular classrooms, for a total of 97 full-time equivalencies.

The district’s parent cooperative SPICE program housed at Seth Woodard Elementary also added another grade level, and the school gained 92 students in traditional instruction in grades K-5.

The kindergarten populations in the districts grew in general this year. While East Valley went down overall, kindergarten classes grew. Trent Elementary has more than 90 kindergarten students this year.

Central Valley has 60 more kindergartners this year.