There are a lot of kindergartners in Powell schools, but not as many as district leaders had been anticipating.

Last week, district leaders prepared for 148 kindergartners and discussed the possibility of adding another class, in case more students enrolled.

But kindergarten enrollment dipped slightly this week.

“Crisis averted,” Superintendent Jay Curtis told the Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees on Tuesday evening.

“Our kindergarten bloomed up and grew quite large,” he said, “and as quickly as it grew, we lost four kids, and we’re down to 144 [students], which is manageable.”

It’s still possible the district could get more kindergarten students throughout the school year.

“We have some cushion, so if we do have some move-ins, we have places to put them,” Curtis said.

With the four students leaving the district, two kindergarten classes are now at 15 students. All the other classes have 18 or 19 kindergartners, Curtis said.

The kindergarten classes with more than 17 students will receive extra paraeducator support, but students will not be shuffled around to even out class numbers.

“Once they’ve started with their teachers, changing teachers is really hard on little guys and parents,” Curtis said. “They get used to, ‘This is my teacher, this is how things work.”

He noted that kindergarten and first grade are important foundational grades.

“Those first two years provide the foundation of learning for the remainder of their academic careers,” Curtis said.

— By Tessa Baker