Increase in County Kindergartners Reflects U.S. Trend

Kindergarten enrollments in school districts throughout Orange County are up this fall, reflecting a national trend away from declining enrollments in elementary schools and raising concerns about overcrowded classrooms in coming years.

In Orange County, the trend is apparent in most of the unified and elementary school districts, Audrey Capasso, a statistician with the Orange County Department of Education, said Tuesday. First-day enrollment this year in all kindergartens in the county was 24,945, compared to 24,243 last year, she said.

According to a special report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Department in Washington, the number of kindergarten pupils nationally rose from 3.5 million in 1984 to 3.8 million in 1985. In the same period, nursery-school enrollment rose from 2.4 million to 2.5 million.

The census bureau report, part of an annual survey of education trends in the nation, said that the kindergarten boom nationwide “indicates an imminent reversal of the long-term trend of decline in elementary school enrollment.” According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the fertility rate nationwide has not changed, but there are simply more young adults than ever before of child-bearing age.

“It’s great!” exulted Cheryl Norton, director of communications for the Fountain Valley (Elementary) School District. In an interview Tuesday, she said that this year, for the first time in 12 years, Fountain Valley’s kindergartens show growth rather than a loss in enrollment from the previous year.

There was a total increase of only 50 kindergarten students in Fountain Valley this year, but Norton said the significance is in the turnaround.

“We had predicted that the declining enrollment would stop in 1988, but it seems to be occurring sooner than that,” she said. “We’re very optimistic now. This is certainly a change from those years when we were losing about 1,000 students a year--that’s how it was in Fountain Valley in the first 12 years of decline.”

School officials said growth in kindergartens shows that more babies are being born within the county and that more young families with school-age children are again able to move into Orange County.

Many districts, including Fountain Valley, for years said that high-priced real estate and high mortgage interest rates prevented young families from buying in the area. In the last two years, interest rates declined and housing costs have not escalated as rapidly as in previous years.

Even in the few Orange County school districts where growth had continued in the past several years, the increase this year in kindergarten enrollment is seen as a welcome sign.

For instance, in Irvine Unified, which has had continuing growth, kindergartens this year are the biggest single category of students. A. Stanley Corey, superintendent for the district, said Tuesday: “This means that in years ahead we won’t be having half-empty classrooms or selling our schools.”

Corey said kindergarten enrollment in Irvine Unified jumped from 1,254 students last year to 1,509 this year. Noting that school enrollment is going up all over California, Corey said new schools will be needed. “It means that Proposition 53, which would provide $800 million in school construction bonds, is a very important measure (in the Nov. 4 election),” he said. The proposition, if passed, would augment California’s dwindling supply of money for building new schools.

In Capistrano Unified School District, William Dawson, assistant superintendent for facilities and services, said, “Kindergartens certainly are growing in our district, and they have been for the past three years. I think it’s a combination of the baby boomlet combined with the fact that younger families are moving into the district as homes become more affordable.

“We have very little trouble housing the kindergarten students because those classes are normally scheduled on double sessions, with morning classes and afternoon classes. It’s when the children move on into the elementary grades that we have problems. We’re having to use a lot of portable classrooms in the elementary grades now.” Dawson said kindergarten enrollment in Capistrano Unified jumped from 1,419 last year to 1,627 this year.

At Crown Valley Elementary, which is part of Capistrano Unified, Principal Richard Thome said, “Kindergarten has grown so much this year that we have seven sections, and that’s more than for any other class in our school.” Thome said the school was “expandable” to accommodate the growth “and with each 28 kindergarten children, we add a new section.”

Santa Ana Unified, which has had the most rapid enrollment growth of all the school districts in Orange County, is “growing across the board” and not just at the kindergarten level, said Diane Thomas, public information officer. She said kindergarten enrollment in Santa Ana increased from 4,117 last year to 4,277 this year.

The 160-student kindergarten growth, however, is just a fraction of the 1,000-plus student increase in the district this year. Santa Ana has been affected by immigration from Mexico and Asia.

Like Fountain Valley, Orange Unified School District has for years experienced declining enrollment. The increase in kindergarten enrollment this year in Orange Unified is thus a very good omen, said Jacque Wilson, public information officer for the district.

“We’re very happy about this because it indicates we’re reaching the end of declining enrollment,” Wilson said. “Kindergartens are the areas where you see the growth in the years to come.”