CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield Area School District has seen an increase in students with “unique needs,” and it’s running out of space trying to meet them in both of its school buildings.
At Monday night’s workshop meeting, Superintendent Terry Struble said the school board will be asked to consider having an enrollment projection conducted by the Pennsylvania Economy League (PEL).
According to him, the district has reached the point of maximized space at both the Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High and Clearfield Area Elementary Schools.
“We’ve been as creative as we can be with the spaces we have,” he said. “We’re to the point where we’re trying to meet all of the students’ needs, and that’s been the challenge from the renovations to now.
Struble went on to explain that: “We have a lot of unique needs that tie up spaces. Those needs weren’t there five, 10 or 15 years ago. Now, they need met and space is getting tighter.”
Before the district goes too far down the road in terms of how to solve its dilemma, he recommended having an enrollment projection done by the PEL.
He said that the state’s Department of Education doesn’t any longer conduct enrollment projections, and the last one was five or six years old. He added: “That’s not a good, accurate count there.”
Also, Struble said the district should see if the PEL could provide a trend line for special education. He said it would help the district to determine if the percentage of students with unique needs will continue to grow.
The board will be asked to consider having an enrollment projection done at next week’s regular meeting.
