STEVENS POINT – A 47-member community task force charged by the Stevens Point Area Public School District School Board with helping to develop a long-range facility plan met April 29 for its first of nine planned meetings.
The task force, titled #PointProud Schools 2040, will hear information regarding enrollment trends, capacity and conditions of district facilities, housing development and population data in the district, curriculum and programming, and more as it develops at a range of recommendations for the School Board to consider in response to ongoing and projected enrollment decline in the district.
“I am really appreciative of what a diverse group we have here,” Chelsea Peeters, a task force member who is the mother of students in the district, a district teacher and a local small business owner, told a Stevens Point Journal reporter.
Over 90 district residents applied to participate in the task force, which is made up of 15 people in each of three categories including parents with children in the district schools, district residents without children in the district schools, and elementary and secondary school staff plus two School Board members serving in advisory and non-voting roles.
“I think they did a fantastic job getting people from all of the different walks of life who all have different points of view and interests in what the district does moving forward,” Peeters added.
How much is enrollment expected to decrease?
Analysis by Madison-based demographer MD Roffers Consulting LLC found the district is serving about 6,721 students, which is over 1,100 students fewer than the low end operating capacity of the district’s 12 mainline school buildings and alternative programs, or between 7,878 and 9,622 students.
Only one mainline school building, Roosevelt Elementary, currently operates within its operating capacity range. Enrollment at all nine elementary schools combined falls nearly 700 students short of the buildings’ operating capacity. Enrollment at the two junior high schools is about 400 students short of their operating capacity and enrollment at Stevens Point Area Senior HIgh is about 250 students short of its operating capacity range.
Projections of population changes in the district predict a further loss of nearly 500 students in the district by 2040 across almost all buildings, according to Roffers. The analysis, which hinges on projected development of single-family homes, projects increasing enrollment at Plover-Whiting Elementary and Bannach Elementary and flat enrollment at McDill Elementary and Washington Elementary.
The Plover-Whiting Elementary building is expected to enter its operating capacity range by 2030 and exceed its capacity by 2040, according to Roffers.
What will the task force do?
The task force was charged by the School Board in February with preparing options for a long-range facilities plan by winter 2026-27 and provide at least one recommendation of a plan to the board.
Items set to be considered by the task force during its nine-month process include changes to school building attendance areas to rebalance enrollment populations, grade group shifts, expanded or contracted educational and co-curricular programming, and school building or site upgrades or repurposing.
Task force members on April 29 received introductory materials, learned the schedule of work ahead, and began to hear about the current state of the district through Roffers’ analysis and other data.
“What I’m feeling and others are feeling is we want more information,” Jocelyn Donahue-Renfert, task force member and mother with a non-school-aged child, told a Stevens Point Journal reporter after the meeting. “We are all interested in having all of the information because we have questions and we have ideas about what the right model is going forward.”
How will the task force judge potential facility options?
The School Board also established a set of equally weighted criteria for the task force to consider as it hears Roffers’ analysis and begins its work on long-term options for district leadership to adapt to the district’s projected shrinking enrollment. These criteria include maintained or enhanced student opportunities, manageable student and family impacts, fiscal responsibility and efficient building utilization.
The task force will also consider options as they relate to the district’s expanding full-day 4K service.
“(My) number one goal is what is going to be best for the longevity of the district, especially for the students and the staff and obviously the community members are important, as well,” Peeters said. “What is going to keep our school going? What’s going to keep our students happy and healthy, our teachers happy and healthy, so that we can stay strong as a district?”
Donahue-Renfert said she hopes the task force will identify the “magic solution” that will provide students with more services in their geographic area for less cost but is realistic that such a solution is unlikely. She supports meeting district students’ “needs” while also providing for some “wants,” such as sports, music and other extracurricular activities.
“It’s going to be difficult to objectively look at and try to balance the goals of saving money and making changes that are not too drastic,” Donahue-Renfert said.
What is next for the task force?
The task force will continue with monthly meetings through December with the next one scheduled for 6 p.m. May 27 at the Bliss Educational Services Center at 1900 Polk Street in Stevens Point.
For the next two meetings, the task force will continue to hear information regarding the current state of the district including information on facility conditions, current programming, demographics and future projections, according to the task force’s schedule. The next five meetings through the summer months and into the 2026-27 school year will narrow down the range of planning factors and options before refining details and considering phasing various options into the district’s plan over time.
The task force is scheduled to vote in a meeting on Dec. 9 on a recommendation to the School Board of at least one long-term facilities plan that would be considered by the School Board at subsequent meetings.
More information can be found on the district’s task force information website, at www.pointschools.net/our-district/task-force.
Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Contact him at epfantz@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Stevens Point Journal: Stevens Point school enrollment is declining. Can a task force fix it?
Reporting by Erik Pfantz, Stevens Point Journal / Stevens Point Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
