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Shrinking out of existence? Photo by Jim Craven A trio of students talk in the only hallway at Prospect High School Tuesday. The tiny district may face closure if enrollment doesn't rise and trigger more state funding. Prospect School Board What : work session to address declining enrollment and revenue. Where : Prospect schools multipurpose room. When : 7 p.m. today Why : School enrollment has been dropping in the past couple of years, and is expected to decline further. Projections show that in a couple of years, enrollment will generate too little in state revenue to fund basic education. Enrollment falls; murky prospects in Prospect By VICKI GUARINO PROSPECT -- How small is too small? The parents and students who appreciate the Prospect School District for its small classes and intimate atmosphere worry that they are about to find out. In an era of public education in Oregon when revenues are based on enrollment -- not on how much a community is willing to tax itself -- Prospect's small and declining enrollment is cause for alarm. With 165 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, Prospect already is the county's smallest K-12 district. Enrollment has dropped from 215 in just two years. Forecasts for even fewer students in the years ahead heighten the sense of urgency school leaders feel. A community meeting tonight will address the issue and begin a search for possible solutions. "I'm very optimistic that we can keep the schools here," says Prospect School Board Chairman Sam Mahoney, father of two Prospect students and one preschooler. "But we will have to make some adjustments." The idea is to make adjustments while the district still has some maneuvering room. Without an effort soon to change the district's course, the community can expect to have too few students to operate an independent district, warns school superintendent Don Alexander. The state funds the district at about $4,200 per student, Alexander says. With further enrollment declines, Prospect would net too little state support to finance basic education. In years past, the community paid for schools and property taxes could be increased to cover shortages. Now Prospect needs students to trigger income from the state. The breaking point would be 145-150 students, school officials calculate. At that point, Prospect might have to be absorbed by the neighboring Eagle Point or Butte Falls school districts. For years, enrollment in the rural, northeastern Jackson County logging community has been small but stable. When Alexander arrived 20 years ago to teach, enrollment stood at about 220. But changes in the timber industry have taken a toll. Family-wage jobs in the surrounding woods are gone, and so are the families that filled the schools. Newcomers to Prospect commonly are retirees who don't have to face the hardships of an hour's commute into the valley. School enrollment has staggered for much of the decade, but began its precipitous fall in the last couple of years. In 1996, enrollment was 215; in 1997, it was 190; this fall it was 165. In addition, Prospect soon will graduate two record large classes. There are 28 juniors ready to move on in 2001, and 22 sophomores set to follow in 2002. The classes that will remain in Prospect are some of the smallest ever. Most grades have only eight to 12 students. "We've never really been that low in our elementary classes before," Alexander says. And if recent experience is any indicator, further declines may be coming quickly. For example, last spring Prospect graduated 20 students -- another large class for Prospect -- but enrolled only four new kindergartners this fall to take their place. Prospect has become a community where every household catches the superintendent's eye. Alexander was particularly watchful this summer, knowing that the budget for the current school year was based on state funding for an enrollment of 175. By last spring, enrollment had fallen to 168, meaning that a budget shortfall lay ahead. "We had a large family move in, and that was nice, but we still haven't made our 175 projection," Alexander says. The difficult economics of running a small district has come up before in Prospect, but not with such finality. "We've got a couple of years to come up with a solution," Mahoney says, "but we have to start planning now." Student's success recruits others By VICKI GUARINO With a few more students like Amanda Price around, Prospect wouldn't have an enrollment problem. "We call her `the Amanda Price recruiting program,"' says Prospect schools Superintendent Don Alexander. The high school junior from Shady Cove is responsible for bringing eight new students to the district. Elsewhere the effort would be insignificant, but in Prospect, where declining enrollment threatens to bankrupt schools, new students promise solvency. "And I know 12 more students who would come if we could have a bus or something," Price says. Amanda Price illustrates both the value of small schools and one possible solution to Prospect's enrollment predicament. She says she has salvaged her education by transferring from the much-larger Eagle Point High School, and she's convinced that other struggling students can do the same. Friends who have seen Price's success have followed her up the Rogue River to the small district. Finding some way to boost enrollment is a top priority for Prospect school leaders. Enrollment has been declining, and with it the state funding that pays school bills. School Board Chairman Sam Mahoney says the board has even mulled over the possibility of establishing a boarding school to boost enrollment. For Price, Prospect has provided the answers to a lot of school problems. She transferred to Prospect as a freshman because she had been too distracted by the crowds at Eagle Point Junior High to pay attention to classwork. She found herself following her friends and getting into trouble. "I was failing every class," she recalls, "and I wanted to get a good education." Additionally, she says, was fearful of drugs and violence in the larger school. Not only does she say she feels safer at Prospect, she says she gets the attention she needs from staff. "It has been better for me here," she says. "It's just a lovely place for people to go to school." It would be a shame, she says, if the aspect of education in Prospect that has served her so well -- small classes -- ultimately starves the schools. "If I did not go to school here, I would not graduate." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA