Student Numbers Expected to Rise 4th Straight Year

For the fourth successive year, overall public school enrollment is expected to increase as Orange County’s 28 school districts reopen for classes in the next two weeks.

And this fall’s increase in countywide enrollment is projected to be by a higher percentage than the three previous years, county education officials said Monday.

“I think the county will have something like a 2% total increase in enrollment this year, compared (with) last year,” said Audrey Capasso, apportionment technician with the Orange County Department of Education.

Capasso said the county’s total number of students began rising again in 1984 after eight consecutive years of decline.

“The peak year for Orange County enrollment was in 1975, when we had 386,086 students overall,” she said. “It started declining then until 1984, when enrollment rose .02%. Then there was a .08% increase in 1985 and a 1.4% increase in 1986.”

Capasso said there will be about 345,000 public school students in the county at the end of fall registration this year.

The 28 school districts have varying opening dates, with Yorba Linda (Elementary) School District beginning classes on Wednesday--the earliest of all the school systems. Four other school districts open their doors Thursday, but most school openings come next week.

Some districts, including Garden Grove Unified, the second-largest in the county, are still predicting slight decreases in enrollment this year. But districts with decreasing enrollment in north and central Orange County are more than offset by enrollment increases in booming south Orange County and in Santa Ana.

“More homes are being built in south Orange County than anywhere else,” Capasso said, adding that the new homes are attracting families with young children--and thus a growing school population in the Irvine Unified, Saddleback Valley Unified and Capistrano Unified school districts.

Santa Ana Unified continues to be Orange County’s most rapidly growing school district. For the ninth year in a row, the school system is expected to increase by about 1,000 students. It has been adding pupils at that rate every year since 1979, district officials said. A high birth rate and immigration are the major reasons for the district’s phenomenal school enrollment growth.

“We had about 37,000 students last year, and we expect to grow to about 38,000 this year,” said Diane Thomas, public information officer for the district.

She noted that the district is working feverishly to build new schools to accommodate continued growth. Santa Ana Unified’s new Century High School--due to open in 1990--is already under construction. In addition, the district has plans for 13 new elementary schools, a new intermediate school, a new continuation high school and expansion of two existing intermediate schools and one existing high school.

While Santa Ana Unified easily qualifies under state guidelines for school construction money, the fund has dried up this year, according to state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig. Honig, who spoke to Santa Ana Unified administrators last week, said state government must respond to the growing statewide need and find ways to get more money into the school construction pool.

Worry About Delays

Thomas said Santa Ana Unified is worried about possible delays in new schools that may result from the evaporation of state construction money. Nonetheless, she said, the school district will continue finding ways to hold down class sizes.

“Our district stresses an average class size of 30 for grades K-8 (kindergarten through eighth grade), and an average class size of 31 in 9-12,” she said.

Santa Ana last year overtook Garden Grove Unified, which for years had the biggest student enrollment in the county. Garden Grove, which had a peak of 53,114 students in 1968-69, has been generally declining since then.

“We will have a slight decrease this year, but we expect to be stabilizing . . . enrollment now,” said Alan Trudell, public information officer for Garden Grove Unified. The district expects about 36,500 students this year.

“We’re growing in our elementary grades, and the biggest growth in enrollment is the portion of Garden Grove Unified that serves part of the city of Santa Ana,” Trudell said. “The population growth in Santa Ana is reflected in our school enrollment.”

Catholic School Openings

Orange County’s Catholic elementary schools in most cases will open on Sept. 8, according to officials with the Diocese of Orange Department of Education. The diocese’s new Santa Margarita Catholic High School in south Orange County opens with its inaugural freshman class on Wednesday, which is also the opening day for other Catholic high schools in the county.

Seven of the eight Orange County community colleges have already begun fall classes. The eighth, Coastline Community College, based in Fountain Valley, starts on Sept. 8.

Cal State Fullerton opened Monday. A university spokesman said fall enrollment is projected to be about 24,500, which would set a new record.

UC Irvine, which does not begin classes until Sept. 28, is also expecting a record-high enrollment this fall, growing about 500 students to a total of about 15,000.

START DATES FOR COUNTY SCHOOLS

Labor Day marks the end of summer vacation for nearly all of the 350,000 students expected to attend school this fall. Of the county’s 28 public school districts, 17 will hold the first day of classes Tuesday, Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day. Five districts start classes before the holiday, with early-bird honors hoing to Yorba Linda School District’s Sept. 2 opening day.

All five Catholic high schools operated by the Diocese of Orange will also get an early start, with classes beginning Sept. 2, but diocesan elementary schools won’t open their doors until Sept. 8.

Anaheim City School District Sept. 8 Anaheim Union High School District 9 Brea-Olinda Unified School District 3 Buena Park School District 8 Capistrano Unified School District 8 Centralia School District 3 Cypress School District 8 Fountain Valley School District 8 Fullerton Joint Union High School District 8 Fullerton School District 8 Garden Grove Unified School District 10 Huntington Beach City School District 8 Huntington Beach Union High School District 8 Irvine Unified School District 10 Laguna Beach Unified School District 10 La Habra City School District 8 Los Alamitos Unified School District 10 Magnolia School District 8 Newport-Mesa Unified School District 14 Ocean View School District 8 Orange Unified School District 3 Placentia Unified School District 8 Saddleback Valley Unified School District 3 Santa Ana Unified School District 8 Savanna School District 8 Tustin Unified School District 8 Westminster School District 8 Yorba Linda School District 2