Enrollment at Columbia Falls School District 6 schools was 2,059 students as they started back to class in late August.

The high school was 647, the junior high 518, Glacier Gateway Elementary was 461 and Ruder Elementary 433.

Last year at the start of the school year there were 2,161 students as of Sept. 15, so the district is down about 102 students overall.

For reporting purposes to the state, the school counts the number of students it has in October, as the first few weeks of school students can often come and go.

Last year Ruder Elementary was at 449 students, Glacier Gateway Elementary 503, junior high 531 and 678 at the high school. In 2024 Ruder was 493, Gateway 469, junior high 554 and the high school 700 at the start of the school year.

Kindergarten classes continue to be small, with 60 at Ruder and 67 at Glacier Gateway, or 127 total.

The reasons for the decline in enrollment are varied. For one, housing is far more expensive than it was five years ago, so lower income families find it hard to live here, school officials have noted in the past. In addition, there are more retired-aged people in Columbia Falls that don’t have young children.

At the high school, more students are opting out of in-person classes and instead gaining their degrees, or at least part of their instruction, online.