Parents in Carbon concerned about dwindling enrollment numbers at Carbon School are asking for the support of the Village of Carbon.
A letter was presented at the November 29 Village of Carbon Council meeting from the Carbon School Parent Advisory Council. Member of the committee Mary Ellen Proctor says there are about 58 students currently enrolled.
“The red flag number is 60,” said Proctor. “They haven’t talked about its closure…we are just trying to get the kids’ numbers up.”
Proctor says there are new families in the community and they hope to get them involved in the school community. This includes extracurricular activities and engaging with the town to attract more families. Other families have opted for homeschooling or have opted to send their children to other schools.
She said a possible closure could affect the entire community. Talking to her mortgage broker, she learned housing prices could be affected if there were a closure.
“That could affect everybody even if you don’t have kids at school,” she said.
“Our main goal is to keep it positive and moving forward,” said Proctor, adding she’s grateful the council showed its support.
“Carbon School is a great school and it’s great to have small classrooms, you get more one-on-one with teachers,” she said. “I like that the kids get to grow up together. I also went to school there, so it is nice to see them going through it. They actually have the same teacher I had when I was going there.”
Golden Hills Superintendent of Schools Bevan Daverne says the board has not discussed the future of Carbon School, and while parents are concerned the number of students has dropped below 60, he says they don’t have a hard and fast number that flags schools.
“With Carbon School, we are quite interested in trying to ensure that school is viable and moves forward,” said Daverne.
He says they have not looked into the viability of the school and says this is an area where a municipal council should look at with their overall planning on how they can bring people into the community, such as encouraging business development.
“Case in point, there is a fairly large development going in at Acme, a huge greenhouse development… this is a very large number of jobs that will eventually provide for the community,” said Daverne. “It might also help out Carbon School, there are a lot of jobs and it is only 15 minutes down the road.”
“At this time, the future of Carbon School has not been a board agenda item. It has not been a specific item the board has considered,” he said.
“We have a beautiful school building in Carbon, the board has put significant investment into that building in recent years, a new exterior, lots of improvements and upgrades on the inside. Our board has been committed to Carbon School for some time, and while there has been some talk in the community and there’s concern on the numbers, we are hoping there will be some improvement there with some of the things happening in the adjoining communities. And you telling me that the Carbon municipal council has it on the agenda, that’s perhaps a positive thing too,” said Davene.
