Enrollment shifts on the Peninsula

School closures are a parent's worst nightmare, which is the dilemma currently facing the San Bruno Park Elementary School District.

Between 2000 and 2005, the district experienced a loss of 350 students -- more than the number of students at most of the elementary schools within the district. One of the district's goals over the next school year will be to study the future projections and create criteria for deciding which school to close, as well as how to create new school boundaries. A group is being formed to study these points.

San Bruno isn't alone in this trend.

Over the past 10 years, enrollment in San Mateo County dropped about 1,500 students, according to the San Mateo County Office of Education. Enrollment reached 91,206 during the 2000-2001 school year dropping to 88,350 during the 2005-2006 school year.

The problem isn't unique for the Bay Area. Numbers were on the rise from 1993 peaking in 2004 with 6.322 million students. Over 35,000 less students are enrolled in California public schools this year, according to the California Department of Education.

Families are leaving most of the state -- except the Central Valley -- in droves in search of more affordable areas to raise children. The trend is showing older citizens staying longer and younger couples with children, not making the Bay Area their home. As a result, school closures and dwindling class sizes are occurring.

Many districts have closed a number of schools over the past 20 plus years, maintaining the property as a rental unit to create income. Such income, however, can only be used for facility upkeep. It will free up money in other areas, but not have the wide-range use as say a donation.

This would be the third school closure for San Bruno.

Carl Sandburg Elementary was closed in 1978 and recently sold for $30.5 million, while the district leases the 20 acres for a driving range on what was once Engvall Middle School at Interstate 280 and Sneath Lane to VB Golf Inc.

Neither school needed to be reopened.

Millbrae was in a similar situation. The Millbrae Elementary School District closed the Millbrae School, at 1 Alp Way, in 1987. Until 2006, the 10-acre school site was rented out. Escrow for the $20.1 million property sale is due to close escrow this summer.

The South San Francisco Unified School District closed Hillside Elementary in 2005 after declining enrollment occurred in the area. At first, the district tried to shuttle overflow children, and children from other districts into the school, said Superintendent Barbara Olds. At one point most of the students came from other places in the city and the school still wasn't filled, said Olds.

Since its closure, the district struggled to fill the open facility. A portion of the property is rented by the County Office of Education for special education classes. The Millbrae Montessori School hopes to rent a couple classrooms. It used to conduct courses inside the Millbrae School.

Even community colleges are seeing smaller numbers. Enrollment spikes when there's a decline in the economy, like after the dot-com bust, said Mike Claire, College of San Mateo president.

CSM will be reducing the course offerings next year by about 50 classes. The extra classes were added to the curriculum during the last school year using one-time funds in an effort to draw in new students.

Lately, the school has focused efforts on updating facilities, Claire said. In the upcoming years, boosting enrollment will take over as the priority.

While these districts are closing down schools and making hard choices, districts in the Redwood City area are gearing up for an influx of students thanks to an economic redevelopment effort already underway. Construction will bring in 2,500 to 3,700 residential units, along with that will come children who will need an education.

Two of the school districts, unlike the others discussed, get income through property taxes rather than attendance alone.

The Sequoia Union High School District began a demographics study recently to start planning for the incoming students, said Chief Business Official Ed LaVigne. Recently, Sequoia began buying small pieces of property to house a larger demand for adult school services and legal obligations to house local charter schools if asked.

The Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary School District began its quest for a new school in the Redwood Shores area years ago due to overcrowding.

Belmont-Redwood Shores voters approved a $25 million bond measure to acquire land and construct a new school in Redwood Shores in 2005. The school is proposed to be completed in 2008 at best or 2010 at worst.

Redwood Shores will have 50 percent of the school-aged children within the district by 2009-2010. Already there is an overcrowding problem.

Currently, Sandpiper is the one elementary school in Redwood Shores. The school was built to house about 550 students before class size reduction was established in 1996. With the smaller classes in mind, the capacity dropped to a maximum of 450 students, 460 currently attend.

To make up for the high enrollment, more than 100 kindergarten students were transferred from Sandpiper to Nesbit Elementary in Belmont. There are no kindergarten students at Sandpiper. Those kindergartners will remain at Nesbit through first grade and start school at Sandpiper in second.

The district is still in negotiations to purchase a portion of the 109-acre wetlands area known as Area H.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.