School Board Expects Enrollment Growth Throughout District

With classes set to begin next week, the San Ramon Valley Unified School District is finding that schools will likely report higher enrollments than first projected.

Assistant superintendents Christine Williams and Jessica Romeo reported that they have nearly completed readjusting enrollment at several elementary schools to meet unplanned demand.  Both said exact numbers would be available in September, but trends in several areas of the district are already showing spikes in enrollment.

Williams said recent development of the area around Quail Run Elementary School brought more families requesting their children attend the school.

With enrollment outpacing projections at several schools, Williams said staff members are reconfiguring enrollments at other schools such as Creekside Elementary, located in an area "that is not seeing as much significant growth as around Quail Run."

"Overall there's very little elementary school capacity throughout the Dougherty Valley," Williams said.

Also to address enrollment needs, all elementary school teachers who received layoff notices this summer have been rehired except those under temporary status, according to Romeo. 

Coyote Creeks and Twin Creeks were two schools actually adding staff members, she said.

Williams added that the pattern identified at elementary schools is echoing throughout the district. The district has already closed Windemere Ranch Middle School enrollment to area residents, said Williams, who predicted the same for Gale Ranch Middle School if growth continues at the same pace.

"We're in a good position, but it's also a headache in terms of diversions and transfers as we can try to get as many families at their resident schools as possible," she said. "Some of the growth is in certain places in the district but a lot of it is due to families moving into our district, so overall need is rising."

Board Member Bill Clarkson asked about the district's policy on residency verification, saying, "it's important the kids living close to their school get to go there."

Williams said the district requires documents be submitted to show residency but reliable verification of those documents is lacking.

"It's tough to validate living area, though we have heard complaints at some schools about students attending that don't live in the area," she said. "The question is if the amount of time it'll take checking into students documents' worth addressing problems of overflow?"

Other highlights at the meeting included:

Settlement Ratified in Former Principal's Lawsuit
Board Member Rachel Hurd reported that, in closed session, the board ratified the settlement of a lawsuit with former Monte Vista High Principal Rebecca Smith, who was demoted in 2009 after several public accusations, including one that she pointed an Airsoft gun at a student and another that she misspent funds raised by students. 

Smith sued the district, contending that she was a victim of age discrimination. Hurd did not provide the specific settlement amount, which was approved by a 4-0 vote.

Board to Discuss Holistic Approach With Administrators
Board members reviewed a recent management seminar where they developed a districtwide set of questions they want administrators to address in the upcoming year.

At the meeting, Superintendent Steven Enoch presented the plan, which poses questions revolving around three educative principles of rigor, relationships and relevance. Board members clarified the categories at the seminar, Enoch said, defining rigor as establishing core standards and themes, relationships as developing character and relevance as modernizing learning skills.

"This is nothing new, but the great challenge is bringing everything together in a holistic way that helps our students in the same, all-around way," Enoch said. "We can certainly hang our hat on our high rate of college attendance or high test scores but this plan seeks development of the whole student."

Enoch said that even though board members are taking a holistic approach, they would be looking to administrators to start discussion in specific areas. 

Enoch presented several sets of questions he said would be distributed to administrators for input. The questions addressed a litany of topics, including: students groupings such as those the lowest academic performance and highest discipline rates; programs such as Reading Writing Project and enVision; and standards such as the University of California's A-G requirements.

One question seeks a comprehensive look into algebra: "What percentage of last year's eighth-graders successfully completed algebra with a C or higher?  What action plans have been initiated to increase this rate by 15 percent for the class of 2012?"

"We want as much feedback as possible on these questions to feed our dialogue throughout the year," Enoch said.