Thinning margin between Powell, Cody enrollment

Posted 3/21/19

As Powell’s enrollment has steadily climbed in recent years, Cody’s has dwindled.

This school year, Cody has 594 high school students — just 25 more than the 569 high-schoolers …

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Thinning margin between Powell, Cody enrollment

Posted

As Powell’s enrollment has steadily climbed in recent years, Cody’s has dwindled.

This school year, Cody has 594 high school students — just 25 more than the 569 high-schoolers enrolled in Powell.

That’s a stark difference from six years ago, when Cody High School’s enrollment exceeded Powell’s by 237 students. In the fall of 2012, enrollment at CHS peaked at 721 students. Meanwhile, Powell had 484 high school students that year.

The thinning margin between the rival high schools has greater implications for athletics.

As one of the largest districts in Class 3A, “if we grow much more, and a few of the 4As like Cody decrease much more, there is potential for us to flip up to the 4A,” said Superintendent Jay Curtis. “It’s not fun being on the bubble.”

Going to 4A would be tough, he said, “and I do NOT want that for our school.”

“But, I do believe we would rise to the occasion if we were forced into it,” Curtis added.

The Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA) evaluates districts’ classifications every two years, “so once a school is 3A, they stay that way for two years,” said Tim Wormald, PHS activities director.

The current classification cycle runs from 2018-20. The WHSAA looks at the district’s average daily membership in multiple grades, he said — and also includes Shoshone Learning Center students, since they can participate with PHS teams.

“I do think it is a possibility for Powell to surpass Cody’s enrollment and move into 4A,” Wormald said last week. “I keep hearing about Cody’s shrinking enrollment, and, of course, we know that we continue to grow — at least at the middle school and high school levels.”

He said to keep in mind that Cody is 4A in volleyball, basketball, track, indoor track, tennis and skiing.

“We’re 4A in tennis because there is only one classification in tennis, and, obviously, we don’t have skiing and indoor track,” Wormald said. “If we surpass Cody’s enrollment, we would move up to 4A in volleyball, basketball and track only. The other sports would stay in 3A.”

Moving to 4A for PHS “would be difficult for our athletic programs for a variety of reasons,” he said.

“While we may be able to hold our own in some sports some years, schools our size struggle to field teams that could compete at the 4A level year in and year out,” Wormald said. “We simply do not have enough students to ‘reload’ every season.”

He added that most 4A teams field four levels — freshman, sophomore, JV and varsity — in volleyball and basketball.

“We typically do not have enough students involved in those sports to have four teams,” Wormald said.

Another concern is that the school’s travel would likely increase dramatically with a move to 4A, he said.

“If you talk to the Cody folks, they would tell you that they are spending a lot more money on transportation this year than they did before going to 4A,” Wormald said.

For a school more centrally located like Douglas, he said travel expenses could be expected to stay roughly the same when competing with 4A schools.

“Being in the northwest corner of the state like we are, though, creates a need to travel long distances to compete against other 4A teams,” Wormald said.

If the Panthers flopped places with Cody, Powell’s closest 4A opponent would be Riverton, at three hours away.

“After that, we have to go to Jackson, Sheridan or Casper to play teams that we would consider ‘close to home,’” he said.

As Powell’s enrollment has continued to grow district-wide in recent years, school officials aren’t sure what’s driving the increase in students.

“I don’t know where they come from, but I do know that it’s certainly a good thing for us to at least be stable,” Curtis said. “A declining enrollment is a bad problem to have.”

PHS Principal Jim Kuhn said the hope is that bigger schools — like Cody — grow as well.

“Increasing enrollment is a good thing until we get to that point where we’re going to go up to 4A,” said Greg Borcher, school board chairman. “And there’s no way to stop it before we get there.”

Powell’s overall population was most recently estimated at 6,440 residents, with Cody at 9,885. The Census Bureau will release new estimates in May.

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