Is Timnath Middle-High School already full, even without any seniors?
A year before it is scheduled to add high school seniors to the mix, the new Timnath Middle-High School is already bursting at the seams, parents, students and staff members have told the Coloradoan.
Students have said they had to detour around classes being held in hallways instead of classrooms, and some were told there were not enough lockers for them to have one. Staff members have complained of a shortage of available classrooms during some periods of the school day.
Poudre School District officials said the school is operating well below its capacity based on national standards but acknowledged that school and district staff believe the one-year-old building's “functional use capacity” is lower, “based on what staff and students have had the opportunity to experience since opening the school,” spokesperson Madeline Noblett wrote in an email responding to the Coloradoan's questions Tuesday afternoon.
Here’s a closer look:
Is Timnath MHS’ enrollment approaching capacity?
Preliminary enrollment at Timnath Middle-High School was 1,254 students in grades 6-11 on Sept. 11, wrote Noblett, PSD’s chief communications officer.
Official enrollment is based on the annual October count by the Colorado Department of Education. Noblett said PSD generally sees some attrition in enrollment between its preliminary counts in August and September and the official count in October.
Planning documents for the middle-high school listed a capacity of 1,500 students. National standards based on the assumed number of students per teaching space, Noblett wrote, put the capacity for Timnath MHS at 1,440.
How many ‘school-of-choice’ students are at TMHS?
The school's preliminary enrollment count includes 105 students who live outside of the new middle-high school’s boundaries, Noblett wrote. Of those, 81 live elsewhere within the Poudre School District, and 24 are coming from other school districts.
When the first round of school-choice applications were processed in February, enrollment at Timnath MHS was 900, she wrote. New residents moving into the school’s boundaries and existing residents who made late decisions to attend the school pushed the number to 1,025 by the first day of school in August and to 1,254 as of Sept. 11.
School-choice applications are only accepted when schools have space for additional students after serving those within their own boundaries. PSD has closed schools off to school-choice students in the past to prevent overcrowding.
What is the distribution of students by grade at TMHS?
Preliminary enrollment numbers, as of Sept. 11, were as follows, Noblett wrote:
Sixth grade: 217
Seventh grade: 211
Eighth grade: 219
Ninth grade: 230
10th grade: 236
11th grade: 141
Are classes being held in hallways and other open spaces?
Yes, Noblett said, but that’s by design.
Timnath and Wellington middle-high schools were both built with “flexible learning spaces” that could serve as classrooms when needed. The glass-enclosed bridge between two sections of the building at Timnath MHS is one such space, she said.
“Part of the bridge classroom is utilized as a hallway during passing periods,” she wrote. “People may not pass through while classes are running. It was designed to serve as a flex space.”
Still, Noblett acknowledged Timnath MHS also is holding classes in its media center and The Summit amphitheater this fall.
Is the staffing at TMHS adequate for the current enrollment?
The school is “staffed appropriately” for the number of students being served, Noblett said. Staffing levels are based on “our district’s formula for student-based budgeting.”
What happens next year, when 12th graders are added, and beyond?
Enrollment at Timnath MHS this year includes 141 high school juniors who would be expected to continue on as the school's first senior class in 2024-25, based on the preliminary numbers provided by PSD. There were 221 fourth graders last year at Timnath MHS' three feeder elementary schools — Bamford, Bethke and Timnath — suggesting potential enrollment at the middle high school next year of those 221 students plus new students moving in as new residential development continues in its boundary.
If all 1,254 of this year’s students remain enrolled and no new students move into the school's boundary, an unlikely scenario given the area's rapid growth, that would put the school at 1,475 students − 35 above what the district has said is its capacity.
“PSD is currently exploring options for the 2024-25 school year and, as decisions are made about how best to address space constraints at TMHS, they will be shared with the community,” Noblett wrote. Adjusting school boundaries is a possible long-term solution but not one being considered for 2024-25.
Why didn’t the district see this coming?
Although those early figures that were used while approving school-choice applications in February suggested enrollment this fall would be lower than it is, a look at last year’s enrollment numbers should have projected a higher total.
Based on the official enrollment numbers from the state’s October 2022 count, Timnath Middle High School would have had 1,024 students in grades 7-11 this fall if every student who attended the school last year had returned. Timnath’s two elementary schools and Bamford in Loveland, all feeder schools within Timnath MHS' boundries had a combined 206 fifth-graders last year, pushing potential enrollment at the new middle-high school to 1,230 in its second year of operation. That’s only 24 fewer students than the school's preliminary count, which is expected to be higher than the total count next month.
Why didn’t PSD build separate middle and high schools in Timnath?
Timnath has been growing at a faster rate than projected, Noblett wrote. The plan to build a single school to house both middle and high school students in the community was made prior to the 2016 election, when district officials had to complete a facilities master plan to put before voters as a bond measure to fund the construction of new schools, including Wellington MHS and Bamford Elementary in Loveland.
Continued growth in the area has the district “exploring the possibility of needing to build additional school space in Timnath sooner than originally planned,” she wrote. “As is the case with any large-scale capital construction in the district, we would need to seek the support of voters to have sufficient funding for construction.”
Timnath MHS is a 247,500 square-foot facility with a preliminary construction cost of $150.5 million, Noblett said. The project has not yet been closed out, so a final actual cost of construction is not yet available, she said Wednesday.
Is Wellington MHS having similar overcrowding issues?
Not at this point, Noblett wrote.
Preliminary enrollment this fall at Wellington MHS, built to the same specifications with the same capacity as Timnath MHS, was 1,034 students as of Sept. 11.
The breakdown by grade level was:
Sixth grade: 204
Seventh grade: 200
Eighth grade: 173
Ninth grade: 180
10th grade: 153
11th grade: 124
Potential enrollment next year, assuming all current students remain at the school as it welcomes its first graduating class of 12th graders and that all of last year’s fourth graders at Wellington’s two elementary schools — Eyestone and Rice — continued into fifth grade this year and and move onto the middle high school next fall, would be 1,211.
Growth in Wellington is also occurring at a rapid rate, and Noblett said “it is likely that PSD will need to explore the possibility of building additional school space in Wellington.
“This, too, would require seeking support from our voters to have sufficient capital funding for new school construction.”
(Correction: Projected enrollment figures for next year at Timnath Middle-High School have been adjusted to correct an error in addition from this story's initial publication).
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Is Timnath Middle-High School already full, even without any seniors?
