Bucking the trend of cities in the Bay Area, San Mateo's young families are staying on the Peninsula and enrolling children in public school, according to a report released at a San Mateo-Foster City School District board meeting Thursday night.
"It's very unusual to see net gains in birth rates and net gains in moderate to expensive housing," said Tom Williams, principal of San Mateo-based Enrollment Projection Consultants.
Williams' report predicted the school district's enrollment of about 10,100 would rise by 106 in the next five years, and by 499 in the next 10 years.
Other Bay Area school districts tend to be stable or declining, but "this one was remarkably stable," he said.
School districts in California depend in part on enrollment numbers for state money, and the projections seemed to please most of the trustees at the meeting.
About 25 to 30 percent of students in the district's boundaries attend private schools, Williams said. His research showed about half of kindergarten to 12th-grade students in Southern California attend private schools, whereas in the Central Valley about 10 to 15 percent do.
Susan Silver, associate superintendent of administrative services, said she expected kindergarten enrollment growth this year because of the swell of interest in information nights and more parents calling the district.
"This seems to be a very stable picture with small growth everywhere," Williams said.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
Planning your dream wedding? Discover everything you need at the Wedding Fair in the Park – … Read moreWedding Fair in the Park
“Side-splittingly funny and brilliantly chaotic” Read moreThe Play That Goes Wrong
Dirk van Ulden said:
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.