Three Forks Enrollment on the RIse
Author: Eliza McLaughlin
Like the local population, Three Forks School District’s student enrollment has been on the rise. In an attempt to prevent overcrowding, the school board has moved forward with a policy that will close the district to new out-of-district student applications.
The decision to no longer accept nonresident students comes after the approval of a bond project which funded both an elementary and high school expansion. Since construction has continued through the start of the school year, the district has operated with limited space for its 804 students, 36 more than it had at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year.
The Three Forks School District operates with fairly unique district boundaries, which enroll students from Gallatin, Jefferson and Broadwater counties. Three Forks’ schools attract other students from these counties for a variety of reasons: proximity to their parents’ workplace, education programs and commute compared to their assigned county school. For example, students living on or north of Hilltop Road in the Wheatland area are assigned to the Townsend School District which is 30 minutes away. However, the Three Forks’ schools are less than 20 minutes away. Similarly, Milligan Canyon residents are 10 minutes from Three Forks and 30 minutes from Whitehall.
One-hundred and ninety students living in Broadwater County attend the Three Forks’ schools in various grade levels. Five of those students live beyond the district’s boundaries. In Jefferson County, 22 students attend Three Forks, with half attending as out-of-district students.
The district’s new policy, if approved on Nov. 15, will only permit nonresident students if they are a nonresident employee’s child or a foreign exchange student. The policy also allows current out-of-district students to continue attending Three Forks schools with an annual application, due on May 1 of each year.
Townsend School District Board Chair Jason Noyes told MT43 News that he doesn’t expect this policy to impact the district since only “a handful” of Townsend students attend Three Forks. “As many of our area schools continue to expand, we all have to implement strategies and policies to manage growth so we can continue to provide an optimal learning environment for both our students and teachers alike,” he said. “Moving forward, the Townsend School District administrators and board of trustees will continue to evaluate our own policies and to be proactive in regards to the continued influx of people within our county.”
Three Forks’ Superintendent Rhonda Uthlaut will then review the student’s academic record, disciplinary record and current level in class, before recommending the nonresident student's application for approval or denial to the board. “Admission in one school year does not imply or guarantee admission in subsequent years,” reads Policy 3141, the school’s Discretionary Nonresident Student Attendance policy.
The new policy will permit students who move out of the district to continue attending the school unless they register in another school district.
The board did not determine whether it would charge tuition from out-of-district students during the meeting. However, the policy allows it to do so.
Out-of-district students will not be eligible for school transportation services, according to the policy.
The first reading of Policy 3141 was unanimously approved by the school board during its Oct. 18 meeting. If approved during the Nov. 15 meeting, it will immediately go into effect.
