A look around the area

Here's a look around the area at newspaper school coverage.

• From this week's Northern Star, published in Clinton in Big Stone County. They cover Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley school. Their newspaper is quite similar to the Voice in many, many ways. They frequently get color ink, but not every week. They focus on just one school (C-G-B) while covering a long assortment of small towns, even beyond their main towns of Clinton, Granville and Beardsley.

Also noteworthy is that, in spite of being in small towns with a limited economic base, the Northern Star has very strong circulation figures almost identical to the Voice (roughly 1,600 readers a week).

Now to their coverage of C-G-B this week...I noticed:

1. they had 59 students attend their fall FCCLA rally in Morris.

2. They were unable to find any staff members to take up the One-Act Play coaching position; they will advertise in the community to find someone for that spot.

3. Their school's general fund balance hovers around $1 million, which is a little short of what they'd prefer it be at. That figure covers about 1.7 months of expenses for C-G-B. This is also slightly below what B-B-E holds as a fund balance (ours is about $1.3 million).

4. C-G-B is operating with deficit spending, with revenues not keeping pace with expenses.

A side note: I believe that C-G-B is an excellent small school operating in the very difficult forces of the rural economy and a farm economy that's in serious financial trouble.

It's important to note that while B-B-E's $1.3 million fund balance sounds nice, it would be spent down very quickly if the district's levy referendum does not pass on November 6.

• From this week's Pope County Tribune in Glenwood...they cover the Glacial Hills elementary charter school in Starbuck as well as Minnewaska Area schools.

A front-page article shows that Minnewaska's enrollment continues to climb. They have steadily gained in enrollment every year since 2014. Earlier this decade, they were still spinning downward towards a K-12 enrollment of around 1,000 students. They have had a very remarkable turnaround since then. I see this happening due to multiple reasons, the biggest of which is a strengthening job market in Pope County as well as Douglas County. I also would assert that the strengthening job market to our west can be a very good thing for B-B-E as well.

Interestingly, Minnewaska's enrollment gains have now gotten to the point where every part of their three school campuses in Glenwood and Starbuck are being utilized. A few years ago, multiple classrooms in their high school were vacant. Today, their new building out on the hill by Long Lake along Highway 29 houses grades 4-12.

The newspaper article says that they will need to find "alternative options" to house all students in the 2019-2020 school year.

From May 2018 to October 2018, they have seen widespread increases across their grades. First grade went from 85 to 96. Second grade went from 85 to 91. Overall, their elementary school (grades K-3) increased the enrollment from 365 to 371. In the high school, fifth-grade numbers climbed from 93 to 108. Seventh-grade numbers climbed from 81 to 100. Their sophomore class increased from 85 to 99 students. Their junior class increased from 69 students to 82. They did see a huge drop in their senior class from 86 to just 63.

Here's the punchline: from May 2018 to October 2018, Minnewaska's overall K-12 enrollment climbed dramatically from 1,188 to 1,264. They are close to being exactly double the K-12 enrollment of B-B-E. An enrollment gain of 78 students equates to at least $550,000 extra in state funding (a very conservative estimate).

From the Stevens County Times newspaper, which covers Hancock...a brief mention of their upcoming $7.9 million bond referendum for a school addition. That small school is experiencing major enrollment gains and needs to add onto their existing K-12 campus facility.

*Also, don't forget: Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa school district residents, students, staff and teachers are invited to the final levy referendum meeting prior to the November 6 general election. Superintendent Walsh will be leading a PowerPoint presentation on referendum and budget-related information. He looks forward to visiting with the public and answering their questions! The meeting is Monday, October 29, at 7 p.m. at the Fine Arts Auditorium in the high school.

The Bonanza Valley Voice website calendar is updated regularly each week with upcoming meetings and events: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/page/bonanza-valley-community-calendar/102.html. Note: the only way to get on that community calendar page is to advertise your event in the newspaper!