KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas, including Olathe and Lenexa. She will continue to follow up on declining enrollment. If you have thoughts or concerns about your own school district related to enrollment or special education, please reach out. Share your story idea with Olivia.
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School districts across the Kansas City area are facing tough decisions as declining enrollment impacts their budgets. The Mid-America Regional Council points to lower birth rates and a lack of affordable housing as the biggest factors driving the trend.
"In order for birth rates to rebound is that homes have to become more affordable would be one, one piece of that puzzle," Frank Lenk, MARC economic research director, said.
The Blue Valley area in Johnson County is struggling significantly with affordable housing, forcing the school district to make difficult decisions to align funding with enrollment.
Blue Valley Schools Superintendent Gillian Chapman said the district was hit especially hard this year.
"We were surprised and taken a little bit off guard by about 163 student decline," Chapman said.
While the number of students might not sound huge, the resulting loss in funding is significant.
"A million dollars that we were expecting that won't materialize," Chapman said.
Chapman said the financial burden will fall on families. Kate Blythe has three children in the district who are all part of the strings program, which will be scaled back to cover costs.
"It's disappointing. You know?" Blythe said. "There are decisions that are being made that are going to take things away from the reason that we came to Blue Valley in the first place."
Since Blythe moved her family to Blue Valley, it’s become increasingly harder to do so. The average home price in the area is upwards of $700,000.
"For a family to start out with their child in kindergarten in Blue Valley, that might be a stretch," Chapman said.
Enrollment is only one piece of the larger school funding puzzle. Blue Valley is also facing an $18 million budget shortfall because the district is missing special education funding from the state.
"The only options that we have are to reduce programming and also increase fees for families," Chapman said.
Jennifer Jarrell, another Blue Valley mother, said she saw the writing on the wall years ago.
"I have been involved in advocating for our schools since 2011 because at that time, I was already seeing the cuts," Jarrell said.
Jarrell said schools only have so much power, and that changes also need to come from lawmakers in Topeka.
"The Kansas legislature for many years now, been hostile to public education," Jarrell said. “That's the issue, and we need to address it.”
Now that the effects are reaching students, parents are noticing the impact.
"We know that they have to have the money come from somewhere, but I do think that if we don't prioritize education as a state, then we're going to keep slipping," Blythe said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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