I extracted this data shortly after I wound up on Trego’s school board. It’s important to remember that Fortine is only six miles distant, as the enrollment figures below show it has steadily increased enrollment. The data includes enrollments over time and 2010 census numbers for ages 5 to 14. Students from Trego (district 53) attended both Eureka and Fortine. I have included those districts in this table (raw numbers 2005 to 2015 from County Superintendent report, 2019 data from Mr. Selle and calls to Fortine and Eureka). The percentages are from the three schools total enrollment. Looking at the percentages rather than the raw data, the 2010 Census data demonstrates that the drop in enrollment is not demographic. The percentages show that our students are leaving the district. It needs to be considered whether management decisions are responsible for some portion of the decline.
| Year | Trego | Fortine | Eureka | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 47 (7.8%) | 50 (8.3%) | 505 (83.9%) | 602 |
| 2006 | 56 (9.1%) | 52 (8.8%) | 507 (82.4%) | 615 |
| 2007 | 47 (7.3%) | 56 (8.75%) | 537 (83.9%) | 640 |
| 2008 | 35 (5.7%) | 57 (9.3%) | 519 (84.9%) | 611 |
| 2009 | 32 (5.3%) | 59 (9.8%) | 508 (84.8%) | 599 |
| 2010 | 27 (4.5%) | 69 (11.6%) | 498 (83.8%) | 594 |
| 2010 census age 5-14 | 76 (9.8%) | 77 (9.9%) | 621 (80.2%) | 77 (9.9%) |
| 2011 | 21 (3.8%) | 72 (13%) | 460 (83.2%) | 553 |
| 2012 | 29 (5.2%) | 76 (13.5%) | 458 (81.3%) | 563 |
| 2013 | 26 (5%) | 70 (13.5%) | 423 (81.5%) | 519 |
| 2014 | 25 (4.9%) | 82 (15.9%) | 408 (79.2%) | 515 |
| 2015 | 22 (4.3%) | 76 (14.8%) | 416 (80.9%) | 514 |
| 2019 | 6 (1.06%) | 89 (15.8%) | 470 (83.2%) | 565 |
Comparing the North County enrollment data with the 2010 Census suggests that over 20% of the eligible youth were not enrolled in any of the three elementary schools. Trego, at 35% has been worse at enrolling district students than Fortine (89.6%) or Eureka (80%). Eureka, at 80% enrollment, may be influenced by the West Kootenai population.
And that’s the gist of things with the data that was available in 2019. By the end of that school year, Trego was down to 4 ANB (Average Number Belonging). It always seems that building back is a harder task.
Since 2019:
Trego School Enrollment Soars
Enrollment at Trego School continues to rise, in defiance of the historical trend. For the last few decades, school enrollment has been fairly steadily dropping. How low did enrollment actually get? The lowest official ANB (Average Number Belonging -i.e. the official state count of students) that I can find is seven, in the spring of…
Trego's Mountain Ear 