The Hermosa Beach City School District agreed to analyze all classroom options after the latest enrollment numbers show a decided spike in the number of students.
Superintendent Pat Escalante told the school board last week that 1,398 students are currently enrolled in the two district schools, which is an increase of 81 students from last September to this month. Since June, 65 new students have enrolled, Escalante said.
School officials informally interviewing parents over the admissions counter learned that parents are moving to the city because of the good reputation of the schools as well as because of economic factors, specifically more people are moving to new jobs.
Escalante said most parents want their children enrolled at the beginning of the school year, so she doesn’t expect the number to make a major increase upward during this school year.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but I suspect that we may have leveled out a little bit,” said Escalante, who said she would have more enrollment analysis at the next school board meeting.
Board President Jack Burns said the increase exceeded projections made by the school district looking at birth rates and other factors commonly used to predict enrollment. The district’s strategic planning analysis identified economic factors as an unknown variable when it comes to projecting future student enrollment, Burns added.
“When you jump up (about) a hundred students in a short period of time and without a scientific explanation, we need to be prepared,” Burns said. “We don’t have much real estate left because, unfortunately, it was sold in previous years. We just have a little bit left.”
Burns said the district’s facilities committee will look at maximizing classroom space throughout the district, including at North School, which leases the building from the district and offers a pre-school and South Bay Adult School classes for families.
This year, the school district converted the multi-purpose rooms to classrooms at both View and Valley schools. An extra section of kindergarten at View and a large third grade at Valley necessitated the space, school officials said. The school district also decided against spending money on modular classrooms while covering operations costs because the state continues to defer payments until next year.
However, Escalante said district officials are investigating the costs of modular classrooms as well as building permanent new facilities.
“We are looking at ways to use every inch of space on our campus,” Escalante said. “It’s not urgent, but we want to look forward. We want to plan. We need to look at short and long-term fixes.”
