June 16, 2006

East Side Union High School District holding proposed boundary change meetings

District looking to minimize overcrowding at some schools

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

East Side Union High School District is midway through a series of six public hearings for feedback on proposed boundary changes.

There are a number of reasons the district is looking at adjusting its boundaries. At the top of the list is the student population, which currently stands at 24,000. Capacity will top out at 30,000 students. Part of the issue is that some schools are overcrowded while others are under utilized.

"One of our schools has approximately 950 students and another school has close to 4,000," said Alan Garofalo, assistant superintendent for operations. "We are doing this to make better use of our facilities, to relieve overcrowding at some schools and to maximize the use of others.

"Some boundaries made sense 25 years ago, but since then the population has grown and it makes sense to shift boundaries. We are especially concerned about safety. Some students are crossing major arteries and highways to get to school. Safety is a major criterion," he added.

Another reason for the change has to do with social circumstances. Instead of students coming from all over the district and having to meet new friends in high school, the district wants to keep students together with their middle school friends, Garofalo said.

The potential factors were outlined at a school board meeting earlier this year. Six of them are top priorities, such as school capacities and enrollment, safety and transportation, geographic features, educational programs, community input and minimizing school district costs. Seven other factors will possibly be used in the final recommendation.

These criteria include demographic information, comparable test scores, staying within the ideal facilities capacities, neighborhood schools, feeder schools, lowering district costs and making only necessary changes to limit disruptions to the students.

Garofalo indicated that changes will probably be more gradual than abrupt. He expects the recommendations to the board to be made sometime in the December time frame. Three public meetings have already taken place and there are three more scheduled. Each meeting focuses on a different boundary change and its potential impact on a specific high school. Once all the meetings are complete, Garofalo said the staff would take the public input and work with a demographer to combine the needs of the community with the district requirements.

The first meeting, held April 25, concerned Silver Creek, Overfelt and Yerba Buena High Schools. The second, on May 18, dealt with James Lick, Independence and Piedmont. The third, June 13, covered Evergreen Valley, Mt. Pleasant and Silver Creek.

The last three meetings are all scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the following locations: The July 18 meeting will be held in the Evergreen Valley gym and concerns Evergreen Valley, Mt. Pleasant and Silver Creek. On Aug. 21, in the Santa Teresa High gym, the public will meet to discuss Andrew Hill, Oak Grove and Santa Teresa. The final meeting will be held on Sept. 13 at the James Lick gym, concerning James Lick, Mt. Pleasant and Overfelt.

About 75 adults attended the June 13 meeting at Independence High School to discuss proposed boundary changes for Evergreen Valley, Mt. Pleasant and Silver Creek schools. Garofalo noted about a dozen speakers spoke: Most were very supportive of the schools they represented.

Several, however, were adamantly against any boundary changes. "Why not just build a new school," Garofalo quoted them as saying.

He explained that the costs of new schools are high, with the added difficulty of no financial help from the state. The cost of land, design and construction is way too high, he added.

"The cost of building a new school will run about $150 million in today's dollars. Four years from now, it will probably cost $25 million more. It's not fiscally possible. We need the tax money to operate the existing facilities," Garofalo said.

He told people at the meetings that school boundaries are fluid and change with a population's needs. Within the schools, however, important things like cirriculum and credentialed instructors remain a constant district-wide standard.

"Just because the boundaries change doesn't mean the cirriculum and instructors will change," he said.

Once the public meetings have ended, the staff will take all of the public comments into the proposal.

"That's why we need the meetings, to get input and to make the best use of the facilities as possible," Garofalo said.
At the same time the meetings are being held, the district is taking on major physical renovations to a number of its schools.

"We have 120 projects going at a cost of $400 million in construction at Andrew Hill, Oak Grove, Overfelt, Santa Teresa, James Lick and Mt. Pleasant,” Garofalo said. “We are using Evergreen Valley as a benchmark for the other district schools to match."