Palo Alto Attendance Area Advisory Group AAAG: school enrollment boundary change: Duveneck overflow
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The AAAG, the group discussing rising enrollment, possible boundary
changes, and potentially opening new schools, will be meeting Nov. 13, 7-9 pm,
and Nov 20, 6-8 pm, and Nov. 27 6-7 pm, at 25 Churchill. All meetings are
open to the public, and include a public forum for oral input. There will be a
presentation to the school board December 5. Minutes and agendas are
available at http://www.pausd. palo-alto. ca.us/community/ about/news/ downloads/ AAAGMinutes. pdf
Dear Neighbors,
I thought some of you, particularly families with preschool children, might
be interested in enrollment issues. Those of you who lived have lived here for
more than 20 years no doubt remember declining enrollment and school closures.
Now, our schools have rising and unbalanced enrollment. Periodically, the
attendance boundaries for schools are adjusted to accommodate residential
changes.
Currently, some of our elementary schools are over enrolled and
overflow students, while other elementaries are under enrolled. Our high schools
are growing each year, and Gunn is growing more rapidly than Paly. We would like
all students to be accommodated at their neighborhood school. There was
significant concern about Duveneck kindergarten enrollment last spring.
Ultimately, all kindergarteners who had been registered by the February
registration deadline, were offered space at Duveneck. By June, fewer than five
were on the that wait list, and the list was cleared by the first week of
school. Some of the students who moved in after February are overflowed to
nearby schools. Allocating students among schools involves many factors. For
grades K-3, for example, slightly increasing class size above 20 to accommodate
a few additional students at one school can result in loss of State funding for
that grade districtwide. Anyway, if you are interested in more information,
please review the committee materials or attend the meetings.
Mandy Lowell, a member of the PAUSD school board
