The Woodland Park School District RE-2 school board received an update on its student enrollment during its regular meeting on Nov. 12.

An October count of 1,884 students saw enrollment drop from the previous year’s total of 2,015 reported by the Colorado Department of Education. These totals reflect full-time and part-time students in the district. Students who previously attended Gateway were relocated to Columbine and Summit elementary schools in the district. Columbine’s student population grew slightly from 273 to 288, while Summit experienced a drop from 310 to 271.

The district’s chief operating officer, Aaron Salt, reported to the board later that evening that the now-vacant Gateway building has been repurposed this year to host testing for students at Woodland Park High School.

The latest loss continues a trend the district has experienced over the past several years.

Superintendent Ken Witt pointed to recent school closures in Denver and Jefferson County Public Schools as evidence that declining student enrollment is a statewide trend rather than a local one. The state Department of Education said that statewide pre-kindergarten-12 student enrollment decreased from 883,264 in 2022-23 to 881,464 during the 2023-24 school year. Pointing to the slight growth in student population in the area’s private schools and the district’s charter Merit Academy, Witt added that alternative choices available to parents might also be factoring into the recent losses in public schools.

“We’ve decided to focus on academics in this district and get back to the practice of educating children and eliminating a lot of the distractions,” he said. “In all honesty, some people like the distractions, so some of them will leave, too.”

Whatever the cause or causes might be, board members agreed that a sort of exit interview be developed and distributed to outgoing families to gather a greater sense as to why they are doing so. The district plans to explore these options and continue to study local and statewide trends going forward.

“People are taking advantage of other opportunities, home-schooling is up, and it would be a good idea to know why that is taking place,” school board President Mick Bates said.

“Unfortunately, we’re in a trend that’s gone on awhile now, and I’m afraid it’s going to continue to take place.”