A Possible Sign of Economic Recovery? TELLURIDE – With the effects of the national recession leaving a scar on Telluride’s resort community, student enrollment at the Telluride School District dropped for the first time last year, compounding the financial shortfalls the district faced after it was handed a 6.35 percent budget cut from the state. As students return to classrooms in Telluride, district administrators are, so far, breathing a sigh of relief, with enrollment numbers no longer dropping but increasing slightly.

According to Telluride Schools Superintendent Mary Rubadeau, there have been 687 students enrolled since the first day of school on Aug. 24, up from 681 last year (644 students officially since kindergarten students count as a half-student), which could signal that the recession has bottomed out in the resort community.

“It’s not huge but we didn’t lose kids and we are up a little bit from last year,” Rubadeau said on Tuesday. “This speaks well for the region’s economy. We lost some families but we have some new families moving in. It has been a great start to the school year in that regard.”

Rubadeau said there was no age class that received most of the new enrollments but that Telluride Elementary School’s first-grade class is the largest in the district’s history with 74 students.

“That will be a nice little bubble when that comes around,” she said. “We have solid numbers at the elementary school.”

Since official student enrollment numbers aren’t due to be reported to the state until Oct. 1, district officials are tracking classroom attendance closely and while the numbers are still fluctuating, Rubadeau remains hopeful that the student population will continue to grow.

“Two new students came in today and we had three come in last week,” she said. “It’s the nature of this resort area. October first is when we really count the kids but, right now, I can comfortably say we are up from last year. We thought we would lose more families and we really didn’t.”

Each full-time student counted counts for approximately $10,000 in state revenue for the school district and major increases or decreases in student enrollment are an important factor in a school’s budget. In preparing the district’s 2010/2011 budget last March as the district faced state budget cuts that amounted to $600,000, district administrators faced, for the first time, a declining student population and planned in this year’s budget to lose another 20 students.

“Without losing these students, hopefully we will be able to fill in some gaps that have been cut out of the budget,” Rubadeau said.

After cutting the budget, the Telluride School District will be operating a lot leaner this year in comparison to past years. The district had several people teachers resign and has had to reorganize without refilling positions. While the district made the commitment to not lay anyone off, teachers are still feeling the effects of budget reductions by receiving half of what they previously received for professional development. The district is also without discretionary money for various projects and will have to be more creative to furnish those projects without funding.

“Six hundred thousand dollars cut from the budget is a chunk of change,” Rubadeau said, “especially with a commitment of not laying people off. We cut out five percent and in some cases ten percent from different supply line items. We have tightened our belts and we are just starting the school year and don’t know how it is all feeling yet, how it is going to impact our life.”

All that being said, Rubadeau is excited about the start of a new year.

“We have nine new employees, we have new kids and new energy. It’s a lot of positives to kick the school year off with.”