Sequoia High to Reach Enrollment Capacity Next Year

Leaders of the find themselves again faced with the challenge of finding ways to stretch existing resources in a fashion that will properly accommodate a continuously expanding student population.

According to a report presented Wednesday night at the district Board of Trustees meeting in Redwood City, the combined population of all four comprehensive high schools has grown to 8,316 students, which is 49 more students than the year prior.

District charter schools are also experiencing a similar enrollment spike, as 74 new students joined the system this year and increased the population to 1,122 students, which contributed to making this the seventh consecutive school year that overall attendance figures in the district have again jumped.

Since the 2005-06 school year, overall district enrollment has grown by 434 students, according to district documents.

The report and presentation by Susan Berghouse, district head of enrollment services, also illustrates there is cause for district leaders to be concerned about the ever-shrinking amount of available campus space suitable for using to educate students.

To that end, the report said in Redwood City next year will reach the maximum capacity of students that the campus facilities are built to accommodate, as projections indicate that enrollment will grow beyond the cap of 1,963 students.

And Carlmont High School in Belmont is fighting a similar losing battle, as the bulging enrollment there will likely overwhelm the campus capacity of 2,224 students by the 2015-26 school year, according to the report.

Shortly afterwards, during the 2017-18 school year, is when Menlo-Atherton High School in Menlo Park will likely become the third district campus to reach its own enrollment capacity threshold of 2,128 students.

Meanwhile, according to the district report, enrollment at Woodside High School in Woodside will remain far from reaching the allotted maximum of 2,128 students through the beginning of the 2019-20 school year.

Berghouse acknowledged during her presentation that there is a significant enrollment inequality that exists between Woodside and the rest of the other comprehensive high schools.

She attributed the disproportionately low enrollment at Woodside in part to there being fewer children raised within its enrollment boundaries than there are those living in more populous areas of the district.

And though the transfer process may provide the district immediate relief to concerns of equal student distribution, the projected enrollment data provided by local elementary districts feeding into the Sequoia District indicates there is little chance the amount of students entering the high school system will taper off naturally over the course of coming years.

In fact, projections from Berghouse show that the district will likely continue to grow steadily over the course of the next eight years until enrollment, excluding those attending charter schools, reaches 9,409 students by the 2019-20 school year.

In an effort to enhance the understanding of exactly how severe the future enrollment concerns may be, trustees and administration agreed with Berghouse's recommendation to consider contracting the services of a demographer who could offer a professional approach to the issue.

Superintendent James Lianides acknowledged the perspective of critics who say that some demographers have a reputation for charging hefty fees despite generating inaccurate projections.

But he also noted that high school districts benefit from the natural time buffer built into the education system that allows administrations to perform advance preparation for a potential enrollment spike that may have previously gone unnoticed.

But regardless of what is discovered by a demographer during forthcoming studies, a forecast from trustee Allen Weiner indicates that the local high school district may be its own worst enemy as the struggle continues to resolve the issues bred from perpetual enrollment growth.

"As our schools continue to excel, fewer students will be choosing private schools because they will embrace our excellent public schools," he said.

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