Bigfork to limit non-district students

Out-of-district enrollment at Bigfork Elementary and Middle School is almost at capacity.

By state law Bigfork can accept as many students as they want, and state funding to the district is based on enrollment numbers. But Superintendent Matt Jensen said the administration and board have decided to limit the number of out-of-district students they’ll take.

“The reality is we have a lot of out-of-district students interested in being here,” Jensen said. “What makes us special is the culture and climate we have, and we don’t want to swamp that or water that down. We’re drawing a line and saying we’re going to protect the culture.”

Much of the culture Jensen refers to comes from Bigfork’s smaller class sizes, which allows teachers to provide students with more focused attention, and get to know students and their families. Jensen said that makes a big difference.

“We realized that we have everybody’s most prized possession,” he said.

For parent Phillip Jones, that relationship with faculty has contributed to his decision to send his children to Bigfork Schools. Jones and his family live in the Swan River school district. They moved there last year after having home-schooled their kids in Costa Rica. The decision to send their four children to Bigfork started with a recommendation from a friend, and Jones has found Bigfork’s accommodates his family’s needs.

Coming from another country was a huge adjustment, especially for their first grader, who had a hard time adjusting to being in school all day. To help with the transition Bigfork allowed the Jones’ daughter to attend school for half days for a few months until she was ready for full days. Now, as a second grader, she has even has the same teacher, being in one of Bigfork’s first and second grade blends.

Jones said he felt they faculty gave their family special attention and put a priority on their needs.

“As our kids’ needs were met and they did better in their adjustment,” he said. “I feel like the environment is a very positive, safe environment.”

Montana has standards for how many students can be in a class based on grade level. Bigfork adjusted their standards to fit the Bigfork school district. In kindergarten through second grade, that standard is 20 for both the state and for Bigfork. In third and fourth grade, Montana says there can be 28 students per class, where Bigfork has their standard at 22. Once Bigfork has reached 90 percent capacity in a grade they will no longer admit new out-of-district students. The 90 percent cutoff is so siblings of out-of-district students can still enter the school system, keeping families together.

Jensen said the middle school is already at that 90 percent capacity.

Out-of-district enrollment numbers for the current school year aren’t in yet, but Jensen said last year out of 550 students in the elementary and middle school, 110 were out-of-district.

Heather Howlett has a first grader and a seventh grader enrolled at Bigfork. Her oldest graduated from Bigfork High School in 2011.

The Howletts live across from Creston elementary school, and if they stayed in district would send their kids into Kalispell for middle and high school.

Their choice to go to Bigfork has been the children’s.

When their oldest child was starting school the Howletts lived in the Bigfork School District, and their son attended Bigfork Elementary from 1998 to 2004 before the family moved to Bozeman.

“It was probably the worst year of his school life,” Howlett said of their time in the Bozeman school district. The classes were huge and they way kids treated each other wasn’t what he was used to, she said.

When the family had the opportunity to return to the Flathead, and bought their home in Creston, they gave their son the option of going back to Bigfork for the seventh grade, or going into Kalispell.

“He begged us to come back,” she said.

After he graduated, the Howletts asked their two younger children if they wanted to stay at Bigfork or switch schools. They chose Bigfork.

“We like Bigfork, we really like the school,” Howlett said. “We’ve always had great teachers, the school atmosphere has been awesome for them. It’s really the total package for our family. We’ve seen different things and we know we have it good.”

While Bigfork is able to keep class sizes down they are also consistent on keeping up on technology and offering a wide variety of curriculum and activities for students. The size of the school also gives Bigfork the flexibility to have teachers work together to make sure each child is learning at their individual level. For example if a student excels in reading past the level of the rest of their class, they might go to the next class up for that subject, and middle school students who excel in math are able to walk across the parking lot and take high school math courses, for high school credit.

“We’re big enough to be able to provide all of those options, and then break them down into units that are small,” Jensen said.

While not everyone might agree in the district decision to limit out-of-district enrollment, Jensen feels it’s a decision that protects the quality of school Bigfork.

“My goal is to continue the practices that make our district great, and find ways to grow it,” Jensen said.