As the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District faces a shrinking
budget, it’s also experiencing a shrinking student population.
As the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District faces a shrinking budget, it’s also experiencing a shrinking student population – a trend that the district superintendent termed “a crisis” when combined with impending state budget cuts.
Total enrollment for the district’s two elementary schools and its high school has decreased the past two years, from a high of 1,427 students in 2000 to 1,360 in 2002.
While the numbers may look insignificant, the effects of declining enrollment include difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified staff, reduction of the number of classroom aides and other staff and the elimination of programs and services, according to a 2001 study by the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association.
The CCSESA estimates that about 400 of the nearly 1,000 school districts in California are experiencing declining enrollment.
“We have kids going through the system (and graduating) and not as many are coming in,” Aromas-San Juan District Superintendent Jackie Munoz said. “… It can lead to a domino effect – loss of revenue leads to laying off staff because we don’t have the numbers to support them.”
Between November 2001 and February 2002, 22 families moved out of the district – the majority to the Madera and Modesto areas, Munoz said. Also, 15 students moved last summer, she said.
“That was huge for a district our size,” she said. “We get $5,000 a child. That’s a lot of money for us to lose.”
Munoz and the CCSESA study attribute the drop in student population to significant demographic shifts, economic conditions, escalating housing costs and welfare reform that encourages families needing assistance to move to where the jobs are.
The main reasons people are leaving the district are loss of jobs and the high cost of living, Munoz said. Also, not many houses are being built for families to move into.
“These are huge issues, but they’re not about us,” Munoz said. “They’re not moving away because of our schools.”
Additionally, when a district is growing and enjoying highs in revenue, that can lead to the start of programs that can’t be supported once enrollment is down, said Tim Foley, county superintendent of schools. A school’s expenses don’t decrease along with enrollment, he said.
Anzar High School’s enrollment has been rapidly increasing since it opened in 1994, but slowed in 2001. It went from 61 students in 1994 to 344 in 2000.
The ASJUSD also has some inter-district transfers – students who live in the district but go to school in another district. Students who live in the Aromas and San Juan Bautista areas often travel to North Monterey High School in Castroville and San Benito High School, Munoz said.
The district has a set of guidelines to evaluate parent requests for inter-district transfers, she said.
Paul Goodman, a parent of an Anzar High student, believes the school is losing a lot of students to these transfers.
“There should be 150 more kids here than there are,” Goodman said. “There’s some reason they’re not staying and we need to address that.”
Munoz talked about applying for grants to recover some of the missing revenue from the district’s declining enrollment. But most grant money is tied to a specific project, such as in visual or performing arts, she said.
“But that doesn’t buy paper and pencils,” Munoz said.
Foley agreed, saying declining enrollment is not easy to fix. Ways to combat the problem include increasing class size, he said.
“We want to keep (budget) cuts as far away from our classrooms as possible,” he said.
Despite the decreasing enrollment, Munoz said it’s good for the district and community to stay small.
“Small is good. We know our students very well,” she said. “When I walk around on a campus, the kids call me by name.”
DECLINING ENROLLMENT
Enrollment figures for schools in the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District:
Year Aromas SchoolSan Juan SchoolAnzar High SchoolTotal Change
2002 526 490 344 1,360 -4
2001 504 519 341 1,364 -63
2000 553 530 344 1,427 +28
1999 538 543 318 1,399 +11
1998 556 558 274 1,388 +37
1997 547 554 250 1351 +71
1996 551 581 148 1,280 +12
1995 574 595 97 1,266 +62
1994 564 579 61 1,204 +107
1993 537 560 – 1,097 +41
1992 451 605 – 1,056 -18
1991 407 667 – 1,074 +61
1990 420 593 – 1,013
Source: ASJUSD
