For the second year in a row the number of students in West Wendover declined while the number of students in Wendover, Utah increased.
According to figures from all four Wendover schools; West Wendover Elementary, Anna Smith Elementary, West Wendover High School and Wendover High School, the Nevada schools saw declines in student population for the first week of school from the same time last year. Wendover, Utah school saw increases.
By the end of the first week of school there were 583 students at the West Wendover Elementary down from 599 a year ago. At the West Wendover Jr/Sr High School there were 454 students down from 513 a year ago. The total school enrollment for West Wendover was 1037 down from 1112 a year ago a decline of almost seven percent.
Across the border in Wendover, Utah the Wendover High School reported 200 students after the first week of school up from the 196 last year. Anna Smith Elementary reported 295 students up from the 277 last year. Together there are 495 students in Wendover, Utah up almost five percent from last year.
Until this recently both sides of town mirrored each other more or less in school enrollment. While the Nevada side’s school population has always been much larger than the Utah side both sides gained or lost students at relatively the same rates as the other.
The StateLine bankruptcy and the Great Recession both had a devastating impact on the population of both sides of town and both sides school enrollments. The West Wendover Elementary school for example lost about 30 students the equivalent of a class every year for five years from 2003 to 2009.
According to the census there are now 4,410 people in Wendover a drop of 6.6 percent from the 4,721 counted in 2000 and more importantly a drop of more than 10 percent from its estimated population of a bout 5,000 from the state demographers office.
West Wendover’s population decline has also spilled across the border into Wendover, Utah. The much smaller sister city also reported a decline of about 10 percent.
In the past five years Wendover, Utah however has shown signs of great resiliency than its larger sister to the west. While no where near a complete recovery Wendover, Utah has logged some notable new development such as the new Nugget RV Park, the expanded Shell Service Center and the Dollar Store. West Wendover, Nevada on the other hand has met with little success apart from the addition of the Smith’s Gas Station the only large project West Wendover has seen in almost a decade was the City Hall and a city paid for industrial park that so far has two tenants.
This greater resiliency may be reflected in this years school population numbers as well.
Another cause for Utah’s increase could be in the easier access to local, state and federal government financial assistance.
While West Wendover, Nevada’s poor must travel to either Elko or Ely to even apply for financial aid Tooele County administers many of the same programs from its offices in Wendover, Utah City Hall.
The reason Wendover High enrollment is up is because the students don’t have to pass a state exam. The West Wendover students who have struggled with the Nevada exam go across the border and enroll at Wendover High. Tooele County will take them since students in Utah have to pay tuition and Tooele County is broke. The kids can get a diploma and Tooele County makes a few bucks.