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Residents of Atherton’s Lindenwood neighborhood were sorely disappointed Jan. 15 after the Menlo Park City School District board voted to divide the area between Laurel and Encinal schools as part of a district-wide redrawing of elementary school boundaries.
A projected increase in enrollment is triggering changes not only in the boundaries for all three schools, but also in the composition of the district’s two elementary schools east of El Camino Real. In the next few years, Encinal will add primary grades until it becomes a kindergarten through fifth grade school, and the grades K-2 Laurel school will add a third grade.
The boundary changes essentially carve out a new attendance boundary for Encinal school from areas that currently are in the Oak Knoll or Laurel districts. Currently, all Laurel students graduate out of the school after second grade and attend Encinal for grades 3-5.
About 60 people packed the school board’s meeting room on Tuesday, Jan. 15, with a majority of people there to lobby for a plan to keep all Lindenwood children within the same attendance boundary. After debating a complicated compromise plan offered by board member Terry Thygesen, the board voted 3-2, with Ms. Thygesen and Jeff Child opposed, to create a fence-line boundary through Lindenwood based on proximity to Laurel and Encinal schools.
Ms. Thygesen proposed sending all of Lindenwood to Laurel school, and if too many children enrolled, soliciting voluntary transfers to Encinal from Lindenwood residents. If Laurel were still oversubscribed, Lindenwood residents would be first in line for involuntary transfers to Encinal.
Superintendent Ken Ranella was unenthusiastic about the idea, and board members Bruce Ives and Deborah Fitz said it would be better for the overall composition of the school community if Lindenwood residents attended both schools in the primary grades.
“I think we have to go with where we see the numbers work,” said board member Laura Rich, the swing vote in favor of the divided Lindenwood plan.
Lindenwood residents, wearing “Keep Lindenwood Together!” stickers, were visibly — and audibly — upset by the decision. A “Recall Laura Rich” sticker appeared on the district office door after the meeting.
The board also voted to house the district’s new Spanish immersion program at Encinal school, to grandfather current students and their concurrently enrolled siblings at Oak Knoll, and to allow residents in Menlo Park’s Kenwood-Morey tract to remain at Oak Knoll.
Board members also disappointed a handful of North Fair Oaks residents, who had heard rumors that the Menlo Park school district was suffering from a lack of students and was looking to expand into their neighborhood, which is served by the Redwood City school district. In fact, the Menlo Park district is expecting a surge in enrollment, and is only changing elementary school attendance boundaries for residents within the district.
Kindergarten enrollment opens on Feb. 1. For information, go to www.mpcsd.org and click on “Schools.”
