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District Hopes Students Enroll ; Numbers Decide Moriarty Funding

Posted on: Thursday, 19 January 2006, 18:00 CST

By BETH HAHN Mountain View Telegraph

Moriarty Municipal Schools officials are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that more students register to go to school in the district during the next 40 days.

District Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Mike Reese told school board members Tuesday that the district has seen a decrease of 10 students in the first 80 days of the school year.

That decrease is important because state funding for the 2006-07 school year depends on the number of students enrolled at the 80- and 120-day marks.

The state will average the number of students enrolled in the school district on day 80, which was Dec. 14, and day 120, which is Feb. 28. That average will then be used to determine funding for the following school year, Reese said.

Reese said the district already has 71 fewer students than at this time last school year. But with unexpected growth seen in the elementary schools, he added, it is still possible that more students will move to the area before Feb. 28.

Since the school year kicked off in August, 24 students left Moriarty High School, either dropping out or moving, Reese said.

However, the district's five elementary schools gained a total of 14 students -- bringing the net loss in enrollment since the start of the school year down to 10.

Route 66 Elementary gained the most with seven new students enrolling there since the school year began. Reese said the gain is a "net gain," meaning some students may have moved away, but overall, the enrollment at Route 66 increased by seven.

For the past several years, Reese said, the district has typically lost more students than it gains between the 80- and 120- day marks. There have been a few years, he added, where the district does not lose or gain any students or where positive growth happens.

He said it is possible that more students could move into the Moriarty school district by Feb. 28, although "typically, that doesn't happen," he said.

More students means more funding for the district, he said.

In other business at Tuesday's meeting, the school board:

Discussed a drainage project that will alleviate ponding of water on the south side of Moriarty High School after rain or snow.

The proposed plan, which will now go out to bid, calls for a 6- foot-wide, 6-inch deep concrete ditch to extend across the south side of the MHS campus to collect rainwater or snowmelt.

Water in the ditch will then move east with the help of a 4-foot slope.

According to J.R. Nestor, district construction projects manager, the drainage ditch will prevent most of the flooding problems on Center Street.

Reviewed statistics from the state Public Education Department on trends in special education.

According to the statistics, the Moriarty district ranks above state average in some areas of special education, including the number of special education students who spend more time in regular education classes, which is state-mandated.

However, the district also ranks below state average in the number of special education students that receive high school diplomas, at about 62 percent to the state's 84 percent average.

Moriarty also falls behind the state average for the number of special education students who can read or do math at or above grade level.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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