Park County School District 1’s smallest and most remote school has experienced a population boom, so next year the school will have not one fully licensed teacher but two.

This year is the largest class that teacher Allison Feller has had at Clark Elementary School. She said that the population of Clark Elementary fluctuates — she’s had as few as seven students. Until this year her highest number of students in one year was 16 and last year she had 10.

Now, Clark Elementary has 20 students and all of the new faces are from families who moved in from outside of the area, Feller said.

Next year, it’s guaranteed there will be more students as siblings of the current class move on from preschool. Because of this, an additional teacher was approved at the March 21 school board meeting for the 2023-2024 school year. It’s not yet clear how this position will be utilized but Feller is hopeful that working with a second teacher will allow for smaller groups, more instruction time and less interruptions caused by “having to wear a lot of hats.” Parkside Elementary School Principal Jason Hillman, who also serves as the principal at Clark Elementary, thanked the school board for approving the second teaching position. He applauded the job that Feller and the Clark Elementary staff do in educating the students and dividing tasks. Hillman said Clark is an excellent community and he expects the student population to continue to grow.

“We’ve had to do a lot of adjusting. I have two paras, I’ve had to have them help out a lot more than what they’re used to,” Feller said. “We’ve all had to get together and work as a team, all three of us, to take turns rotating the kids.”

At Clark the students all start their day together before going to either physical education or music, which is taught by Parkside’s PE and music teachers. Then students are rotated through different groups but they do tackle some topics together — this collaboration can be an advantage for students.

“Sometimes you have a kindergartner meeting with a third grader and the third grader will be reading a story to them so they get that benefit of someone reading to them,” Feller said. “They also get to collaborate together as a team.”

The new teacher position will be temporary for one year — it will be reevaluated next March to determine if Clark Elementary will need a second teacher permanently.