November 16, 2005

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Publication Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2005

EDITORIAL: Suddenly, a leap in enrollment

The district has reacted quickly to the study by demographer Tom Williams, who believes more students will come from new housing developments in Linfield Oaks and Derry Lane, as well as the sale of many older homes to young families with children. Another factor is that unlike a few years ago, virtually all students are completing middle school in the district -- rather than transferring to private schools, which is also expected to increase enrollment.

The new projections shocked the district, which quickly scheduled a round of meetings with parents, teachers and the community this month and into early December. The district board will consider the issue December 14.

A similar growth pattern is not expected at the neighboring Las Lomitas elementary school district, which expects a 10 percent increase in enrollment over the next 10 years. However, a spokesperson said the district might conduct a similar demographic enrollment study next year, although no decision has been made.

For the Menlo Park district, the new enrollment estimate could result in 2,580 students by 2015, compared to 2,134 today, a 21 percent increase.

Anyone who has children in the district or who hopes to in the future should attend these important hearings that began last week at Hillview Middle School and will continue November 16 at Oak Knoll, November 30 at Encinal, December 7 at Laurel and December 8 at Hillview.

Certainly no decisions have been made, but the district is eager to hear from parents and teachers about what its next course of action should be.

Some work has been done to show how the enrollment growth might fit into each school, including an architect's sketch of what the campuses would look like with the additional classrooms (a total of 16) needed to serve the additional students. Superintendent Ken Ranella is offering four options for the community to consider:

** Simply add students to existing schools, pushing elementary enrollment to nearly 500 at Encinal and Laurel and 758 at Oak Knoll, while Hillview Middle would peak at 852, a 30 percent jump.

** Change attendance boundaries to ease crowding at Oak Knoll, and add students to Encinal and Laurel. Hillview would stay at 852. (Students who now live east of El Camino Real attend Laurel for K-2 and Encinal for grades 3-5. Students living west of El Camino attend K-5 at Oak Knoll. All students attend 6-8 at Hillview.)

** Build a new middle school for grades 6-8, if a 22-acre site can be found, and disperse K-5 students to four elementary schools, or about 431 at each campus.

** Change configuration to K-3 at Oak Knoll (624 students) and Laurel (520) and grades 4-8 at Encinal and Hillview with 712 students each.

At this time, we believe it would be difficult for the district to locate -- or pay for -- a new school site. If the enrollment projection holds, it is much more likely that additional classrooms, probably portable units, will be placed on some or all of the campuses, although school boundaries and configurations could be changed as well.

Local schools have experienced periods of growth before. In the early 1970s, total enrollment was reportedly over 2,400 students at five schools, and then declined to 1,100 students. District enrollment then increased with three boundary changes that included transferring Suburban Park, Menlo Oaks and the Willows-Flood Triangle areas into the district. In 1989, total enrollment was 1,442 students, the starting point for the Williams study.

During this growth spurt, the district will be able to rely on an excellent administrative and teaching staff, as well as an extremely strong foundation that contributed $1.5 million last year, 6.5 percent of the district's annual budget. This is the type of support that is needed when schools suddenly are challenged to make room for more students.

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