The creation of two high schools and the expansion of a charter
school may not prevent the district from surpassing student
capacity by 2015, according to district data.
Gilroy – The creation of two high schools and the expansion of a charter school may not prevent the district from surpassing student capacity by 2015, according to district data.
Gilroy Unified School District staff project 3,700 students in grades nine through 12 during the 2015-16 school year. This means facilities, with projected capacity at about 3,650 students at five district high schools, will be full despite the 900 seats Christopher High School will add when it opens fall 2009.
“We know we’re going to be crowded,” assistant superintendent of business services Steve Brinkman said. “We don’t have any choice because that’s the financial situation we’re in.”
District enrollment has been rising about 1.5 percent each year in contrast to declining statewide and nationwide enrollment. The number of district high school students has accordingly grown from 2,400 in 1999-2000 to an expected 2,900 this fall.
These numbers could balloon in the coming decades as developers, which currently have an allocation to build more than 2,000 housing units, construct and sell houses in southwest and west Gilroy. The district could have more than 3,700 high school students by 2015 and more than 4,200 by 2026, according to district data.
Middle school and elementary school populations will also swell, district projections show. The district population of sixth through eighth graders will grow from about 2,300 projected for this fall to 2,800 in 2015 and 3,200 in 2026. The students in kindergarten through fifth grade will expand from a projected 4,800 this fall to 5,800 by 2015 and 6,500 in 2026.
“The issue there is how do we start to plan facilities that will accommodate the student bodies that will be there,” trustee Francisco Dominguez said.
Last year, the district was about 500 students over capacity. That number could rise to 550 this year despite expansion of the district charter school, El Portal Leadership Academy, and the opening of the T. J. Owens Early College Academy at Gavilan College.
Even with expanding facilities, the enrollment growth could leave the district playing leapfrog with their construction efforts. Capacity could exceed enrollment for the first time in at least a decade as El Portal and the early college academy grow and the new high school comes online in 2009 with 900 new seats.
“We have a lot of different programs serving high school students now,” Superintendent Deborah Flores said. “Between all of those, that gives us a pretty high capacity.”
Yet, this could be reversed by 2015, while capacity remains static and enrollment tops 3,700 students.
The district’s planned expansion of the new high school could ease the crowding and usher in a decade of capacity exceeding enrollment. Construction of phase II of the new high school is scheduled to begin in 2016 and, when completed, would bring total high school capacity up to more than 4,500 students. This would be enough to accommodate students through at least 2027, district staff project.
However, trustees doubt whether the district – which has a $15 million facilities deficit – will have the money to fully fund phase II.
“If it can’t happen because we don’t have the money to make that happen, then we need to make adjustments,” which could include cutting the number of classrooms at the new high school, Dominguez said.
While a high school population topping 4,200 with capacity stuck below 4,000 would not be the best scenario, it would not be a crisis, Flores said.
“Remember Gilroy High School is way beyond capacity right now,” she said. It currently has about 2,400 students in facilities originally meant to house 1,800. “If we had to stretch that capacity again, we could.”
Enrollment projections and capacity problems will be on the agenda when trustees meet Aug. 23 in a Christopher High School study session. With the site work already out to bid, the high school’s future and the ripple effects it will create are becoming a top priority, Dominguez said.
“It may seem like it’s far, but it will be here before you know it,” he said.
District High Schools’ Projected Capacity in 2010
– Christopher HS 900
– El Portal Leadership Academy 360
– Gilroy HS 1,800
– Mt. Madonna Cont. HS 180
– T. J. Owens Early College Academy 400
