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District enrollment falls to just above 3,000; board outlines hiring measures and class-size targets
Summary
Superintendent reported steady enrollment decline and said the district has met target elementary class sizes. District-funded FTEs exclude several grant-funded positions; the board will continue an informal hiring freeze, offer early retirement options and prioritize internal fills while monitoring the trend for possible reductions in force.
Superintendent Dr. Johnson told the Morgan County School District Board that district enrollment has declined from roughly 3,300 in 2021 to just above 3,000 students as of last fall, and that the trend is forcing staffing adjustments.
The superintendent said the district has met its target elementary class size of 20 students and currently averages just under that target. “If you’ll notice now at the elementaries, we have targeted 20 students per classroom, and we now average just under that,” Johnson said.
Scott McMillan, Business Administrator, clarified that the district-funded full-time-equivalent (FTE) counts on the report exclude staff paid from other funding streams such as special education, Title I, computer science grants and the Beverly Taylor Sorensen fund. “Those would be the ones that are funded by the WPU and your local property tax,” McMillan said.
Board members and staff described steps the district is using to match staffing to declining enrollment: an informal hiring freeze to absorb vacancies through attrition, prioritizing internal fills where possible, meetings with Employment Services Director Craig Wilson to offer early-retirement options and other voluntary adjustments. The superintendent said a reduction in force is not planned but “that’s what comes with the fluctuating enrollment sometimes” if declines exceed separations.
Board members asked whether homeschooling, charter participation or programs such as Utah Fit are affecting enrollment. The superintendent and McMillan said the district has not seen a major change in homeschooling numbers and that statewide demographic trends (birth rates) are likely a factor; participation data for some choice programs are not publicly available to the district at this time.
The superintendent said the class-size and enrollment charts will be posted on the district website for public review as the district enters the hiring cycle.
