Four and five students in a course at Eisenhower.

Two in a class at Sheffield.

Six and seven in classes in Warren and four in a class at Youngsville.

The challenge of offering a diverse curriculum across four high schools with declining enrollment was on display this week at the Warren County School District’s board meeting.

Administration presented a list of the classes offered in grades six to 12 this school year, along with the number of students in each course.

Unsurprisingly, some of the numbers are low.

Superintendent Gary Weber said some of the classes are the result of a teacher having an open period, and thus the ability to offer another course.

“In other cases, we have scheduling changes that end up with numbers that would be on the high end,” he said. “A lot of it is based off flexibility, especially at the secondary level. The courses become inflexible.”

Splitting a high class size and a low class size into two medium class sizes often can’t be done based on the time students are available to take the class.

“(We’re) seeing inflexibility on the low end and the high end,” he said.

What’s the district’s response to those low enrollments?

Weber said a class might not be offered at all or it’ll be offered in a different forum, such as the Virtual Academy. Striking a class entirely obviously means that the opportunity goes away for students.

“Part of the argument we’re trying to make all along, (it’s) causing numbers to be very disparaging on the high end and low end,” Weber said. “It’s frustrating for us to see them, as well.”

ATHLETICS UPDATE

The board forwarded at its Monday committee meetings a proposal to the October meeting to create a co-op for Sheffield boys basketball with Abraxas in Marienville.

Director of Administrative Support Services Eric Mineweaser said the request is similar to the co-op currently implemented at Sheffield for football.

Fall third and 10 day participation numbers for sports were also presented.

The only program under the number of minimum participants is football at Eisenhower (21 athletes with a required 22 minimum.”

What’s the district’s response?

Weber said administration will work with the team to increase numbers and monitor that number for next year. If it again falls short, he said the program would move to a probationary status.

Should the numbers still fall short, he said there would “at some point” be a “conversation about the team” continuing.