High Schools Near Capacity

Enrollment in the Sequoia Union High School District increased for the third time in as many years, according to a report released Wednesday at the district board of trustees meeting.

The district has 8,316 students enrolled this year. That is 65 more students than last year, and 199 more than the 2009-2010 school year.

Continuing the trend from the year prior, Carlmont High School in Belmont remains the most populated campus in the district. This year 2,092 students are attending the school, which is 35 fewer students than last year.

The 2,023 students enrolled at Sequoia High School in Redwood City make the school the second largest in the district this year. The school's attendance jumped this year, as it gained 129 students from the year before.

Menlo-Atherton High School in Menlo Park is the third largest school in the district this year. There are 1,979 students enrolled at the school this year, which is 45 fewer students than 2010-2011.

And Woodside High School remains the district's smallest school, in terms of enrollment. The 1,734 students enrolled there this year is three fewer than how many attended the school last year.

But only accounting for students attending the four comprehensive high schools does not tell the entire tale of the district's enrollment issue, which is a cause of concern for trustees and administration.

This year there are 20 more students enrolled in the district's variety of alternative programs and academies than there were in 2010-2011.

But at Wednesday night's board meeting, administrators and trustees focused on the enrollment spike at the four charter schools affiliated with the district.

According to Director of Enrollment, Registration and Personnel Susan Berghouse, who authored the report, there are 1,147 students who live within the district boundaries but elect to attend charter schools.

Those students enrolled at Stanford East Palo Alto New School, Summit Preparatory High School, East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy and Everest High School are not accounted for in the report as being members of the Sequoia District. Each district charter school, except Stanford East Palo Alto New School, grew in size from the previous year. Across the district this year, 110 more students elected to attend charters schools rather than comprehensive high schools.

Attendance at Everest High School, located in Redwood City, grew the most this year as it gained 95 students from the year prior. Everest joined the district in 2009 and has been adding about 100 students annually to its enrollment roster.

Trustee Alan Sarver said that the increasing popularity of local charter schools disguised the issue of enrollment growth in the district.

District concerns regarding the growing student population size are compounded by the issue of Sequoia, Carlmont and Menlo-Atherton high schools nearing to reach the enrollment capacity of each campus, according to a district report released last year. Sarver said the district needs to begin addressing possible options to accommodate the increasing enrollment figures.

"We need to be looking off into the future and having our enrollment projection discussion and doing a lot of planning," he said.

Berghouse is expected to return to the board in January with enrollment projections for the coming years.

"We need to take some of this into account regarding what will be the impact on facilities," said Superintendent Jim Lianides. "That will be a very important report in terms of guidance."