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 </figure>By ROD ZOOKHutch PostHUTCHINSON, Kan.— Like many school districts, Hutchinson USD 308 is seeing declining enrollment. The numbers were presented to the public and board members during a special USD 308 board meeting on Monday.&nbsp; Rob Schwarz with RSP in Kansas City talked about everything from enrollment, to housing, to where most of the current and future students live. The study is being done to see where the district may go in the future. No action came during Monday’s meeting. No final decisions are expected until near the end of the calendar year.&nbsp;Along with the declining enrollment, the district is also seeing little housing development and expansion. Schwarz said that both small populations and smaller families are leading to fewer students in the district. During the 2020-21 school year there were 335 seniors leaving school while just 268 students were joining kindergarten. The study once again addressed boundaries and how they could steer students in the future. North of the BNSF railroad tracks, building inventory is exceeding the number of students in the north half of the city. South of the railroad tracks also shows that the inventory there is now exceeding student numbers despite the closure of one elementary school in that area during the last boundary readjustment. Schwarz told the board he does not see anything that could change those trends in the near future. If the district loses 100 students it is roughly a $700,000 hit to the district's revenue. The district's reserves have been stabilized by COVID funds. Those funds will continue for about two more years before reserves would have to be used to keep revenue where it needs to be.The study also presented findings for the district's building capacity and functionality. The study showed that only one elementary school was above 70% functional while the others were below that 70% mark. That means the buildings are not being utilized to their full capacity. Some facilities could be used for different core classes such as special needs or other programs. The study included tours of the buildings to see how they were being used during the typical school day. The study shows that the district has more than enough capacity for students now and in the future in all three school levels.&nbsp;The district wants to address grade configuration, ideal school size, neighborhood schools, boundary realignment and building utilization. There are also early childhood needs they want to address. Schwarz says some of the things that could be done include adjusting space usage in small steps and as needed to show how buildings could be used to their capacity. The study also makes clear that the lack of good and affordable housing stock is hindering the ability of the district to draw more families and thus students into the district.&nbsp;Some of the ideas bounced around included potentially consolidating the middle schools, finding a way to move the 6th grade out of the elementary schools, and what the district could do with the administrative offices. Schwarz said nothing is off the table when it comes to ways to improve the district.The next steps include finding what the best elementary and middle school grade configuration is, what is the ideal size of middle school to ensure best student performance, and what is the ideal available capacity. The issue of the sixth grade students being at the elementary level is one of the issues that could be addressed. Some feel that the sixth grade should be with the middle school students. Making that choice could require expanding the middle school facilities. Schwarz says RSP will be back with more suggestions and noted that ideas that will be bounced around will likely get patrons attention and some may not be popular.&nbsp;Superintendent Mike Folks said that he wants patrons and parents to get involved in HUSAC ( Hutchinson Unified Superintendents Advisory Council) and get involved in the future of the school district. Folks wanted to stress that these are very preliminary ideas and nothing is set in stone.&nbsp;The board says they will have to make decisions that are tough and need patrons to learn as much as they can and provide their imput. The board also said the district needs to leverage the resources they have and make the district a place students want to come to. Schwarz said we know that we can’t do things the way these have been done and changes need to be made.<a href="https://hutchpost.com/download" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a>&nbsp;to download the HutchPost mobile app. <a href="https://hutchpost.com/posts/5e73b532afae0f4d5f5d90ea" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a>&nbsp;to sign up for the daily HutchPost email news update.&nbsp;&nbsp;

RSP paints the picture of the district to the USD 308 Board