Private school will close/ Sour economy diminishes Trinity

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), May 30, 2003 by DANIELLE NIEVES

A private school with a 19-year history in Colorado Springs will close because its enrollment has plummeted.

The drop in enrollment at Trinity Christian School, 5055 El Camino Drive, was caused in part by recent layoffs and the unsteady economy, Principal Lance Howard said.

About 60 children in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade are looking for new schools, and about 20 teachers are out of a job, Howard said.

"We planned for the economy to impact enrollment, but not to the degree it did," Howard said.

In the past two years, the school had between 110 and 115 students. It expected to have at least 90 children next year, but when enrollment dipped to 60, the school's governing board decided not to reopen this fall.

The school is facing a deficit of more than $100,000, Howard said.

Thursday, as other schools in the area prepared for summer school or a three-month break, Howard said Trinity Christian is selling its books and materials.

"It's been heartbreaking for everybody involved, both staff and parents," he said.

Howard said he learned from surveys that at least seven students left the school because a parent had been laid off. Others no longer could afford the tuition.

The cost for students in first through sixth grade is $3,300; full- day kindergarten is $3,150 and pre-kindergarten is $1,550 to $2,300.

Earlier this year, the school board applied for grants that would give the school money for scholarships. Those grants wouldn't be available for at least a year.

Students will be home-schooled or attend other private schools or public school, Howard said.

The school will close for the 2003-04 school year but could reopen in the future if enough money can be raised, Howard said.

Howard said the drop in enrollment isn't an indication of a lack of interest in private education but a sign of hard economic times.

He pointed to organizations such as Parents Challenge, which provides scholarships to low-income children who want to attend private schools. The program has a waiting list of families who want to receive scholarships.

Children from about 40 churches attend the school, and 10 families don't belong to any church.

"It's pretty devastating to have it close," parent Becky Scott said. "For the most part, the parents are just kind of hoping there's a miracle."

Scott said she enrolled her daughter in the school's kindergarten last fall because of the small class sizes. Classes at the school averaged 10 to 15 students.

The school was sponsored by Trinity Church of the Nazarene and was open to Christians and non-Christians.