The Aromas-San Juan Unified School District’s top revenue source comes from average daily attendance but student enrollment has been declining, which means the district has been getting less money in recent years.
The last three years of data—examined by trustees at their recent meeting—showed slight fluctuations all markedly smaller than enrollment numbers for at least the previous 16 school years, according to the California Department of Education’s website.
Enrollment has been hovering at about 1,100 students, “but it’s been kind of dropping,” Superintendent Ruben Zepeda told the Free Lance.
Having fewer students has real costs. The district gets between $7,200 and $7,500 per child, the superintendent said. That number multiplied by 10 students could be $72,000 to $75,000, “which doesn’t seem like a lot but that’s actually somewhere near to an entire teacher,” Zepeda explained.
In the most recent three years, enrollments ranged from a high of 1,170 students in 2012-13 to a low of 1,149 students in 2013-14. Last school year, enrollment was at 1,164 students.
“This year is up just a little bit from last year,” Zepeda said.
Between the 1996-97 school year and 2011-12, the enrollment ranged from 1,229 to 1,427 students.
The main factors drawing students away from the schools are commuting parents who wish to drop their children off at sites closer to where they work and students seeking alternative education routes during high school.
Under the Allen Bill, parents working outside the district can apply for a transfer so that their child attends a site closer to where they work, Zepeda explained. With many parents working in Silicon Valley, a certain number of students will be ferried out of district lines.
“That’s the largest reason students transfer out of our school district,” he said. “We can’t really do too much about that.”
Statewide, there is also a movement that students in 9th and 10th grade who have not been successful in school drop out, the superintendent said.
“We don’t really have that,” he said, adding that some students in the district do opt for alternative education.
Students sometimes choose this instead of the district’s graduation requirements, which mandate upper-class presentations called exhibitions, service learning hours and the completion of college-prep classes required for entry into University of California or California State University schools, Zepeda explained.
The district’s schools each have their own draw. Anzar High School is a college preparatory school, offering a curriculum of “A-G” courses meeting the requirements for entrance into state universities.
San Juan School’s dual immersion language program attracts students from Hollister since the Hollister Dual Language Academy is at capacity, Zepeda said.
“We’re close enough that they’re willing to drive over and participate in our program,” he said.
Aromas School has the highest scores in the district for students in the K-5 grades on the new state standardized test, Zepeda said. The scores were above the state average in almost every grade level, he said.
To see the district’s enrollment in previous school years, go here: http://bit.ly/1RUEGWt.
