Preliminary data demonstrates Summit School District’s enrollment is lower than last year, indicating an ongoing trend of a declining student population. 

Chief Financial Officer Kara Drake presented the overall preliminary head-count number and other related data at a Thursday, Oct. 23, Board of Education meeting. 

Drake clarified the data she presented are not final numbers and the district will receive those later in the year. She added the preliminary data might not capture every student, particularly high schoolers who might not have a full course load because they got ahead on credits. Additionally, preschool enrollment can cause fluctuating numbers because families can enroll throughout the year. 

Head count matters in a state that funds its public schools through a per-pupil funding method. Districts have felt the strain of the state’s budget over the past 15 years or so because of a recession-era mechanism that was created to keep other state funding afloat. It is estimated around $10 billion has been withheld from public schools since then. 

According to the Colorado Department of Education, the Summit School District finished the 2024-25 school year with 3,475 students enrolled. A memo included in the Board of Education agenda stated that, as of Oct. 16, the enrollment for Summit School District was around 3,226. The memo went on to mention enrollment numbers fluctuate in the first part of the school year and that is not the final head count. 

The preliminary head count represents 34 fewer pupils than what the district projected, which was 3,260. Drake said the district receives around $12,000 per student, and while it may seem like the district is receiving over $400,000 less than officials thought, that’s not the case. She said the current averaging component of the per-pupil funding formula helps soften the blow and the current projected impact to funding is $222,000 less than expected. 

“That’s revenue we had planned on when we built our budget that we will not be receiving,” she said. 

She said the state will have the opportunity to revise its budget in January, so the final per-pupil amount won’t be set until then. She said it is currently unknown what the state will do with its education budget in the upcoming 2026 legislative session. 

Board member Julie Shapiro said she was concerned about the budget because the district is already “skating close to” its policy requiring 10% of the budget to serve as reserves. 

Superintendent Tony Byrd said he had heard from others in the education field that the state’s budget “is going to be awful.” He said the district will have to figure out how to balance being close to the 10% threshold while also committing 89% of its budget to staff salaries. 

“We’re in it. We are in a tough conundrum, so my hope is we can all work together to try to fight that,” he said. “But I think it is also complicated in Colorado.”

This could be the third year in a row the district sees an enrollment drop. It experienced a 3% drop in enrollment last school year, and a 2% drop in enrollment the year before that. 

Drake said the district is “significantly down” in enrollment in its elementary schools. Between the five elementary schools in the district, enrollment was 2.7% lower than what the district projected. Charts she presented to the board demonstrate Summit Cove Elementary and Dillon Valley Elementary experienced the largest drops in enrollment. The two schools also had the largest delta between what district officials thought their enrollment would be versus what preliminary data showed it was. Drake said stats show Dillon Valley Elementary’s population was around 8.8% lower than officials anticipated, and Summit Cove Elementary was around 11.6% lower than anticipated. 

Drake said trends in the state suggested the declining enrollment many schools are seeing is due to families moving out of Colorado. Byrd said he also heard from other districts they believe their Spanish-speaking student population shrunk as families leave the U.S. due to federal policies. 

More concrete enrollment numbers will be presented at the start of 2026.