HUNTINGTON BEACH : District Sees End to Enrollment Decline

A 13-year enrollment plunge that is chiefly blamed for a deep financial crisis in the Huntington Beach Union High School District may finally be coming to an end.

For the first time since 1978, enrollment on the first day of classes Sept. 5 was higher than the previous year, Supt. David Hagen said.

Opening-day attendance was 19 students higher this year. That indicates the start of a long-anticipated reversal of declining enrollment, Hagen said.

Official enrollment figures are not recorded until Oct. 1, but Hagen said he is confident that the increase will hold until that date.

Based on enrollment trends in the district’s three feeder elementary school districts, this year’s increase appears to be the start of a steady rise in attendance expected for the next few years, Hagen said. He projects a 140-student increase next year and a 300-student climb in fall, 1993.

When Hagen announced the enrollment turnaround at a recent school board meeting, a group of teachers and other employees broke into applause.

“It’s a tremendous relief for those people out there,” Hagen said. “They feel as if they ran a marathon, and they finally see the finish line.”

Since the beginning of the decline 13 years ago, the district’s enrollment has dropped by 10,000 students, to its current level of 13,500. Since state funding for schools is based on enrollment, the district during that period has been forced to slash more than $37 million from its budget.

In the last five years alone, the school board has cut $14.5 million in spending, shrinking the district budget this year to less than $80 million.

If the enrollment trend reverses as expected, Hagen said it will be three years before it translates into financial stability for the district.

Trustees will probably have to trim the budget again next spring by at least $1.5 million, but Hagen said he hopes no cuts will be needed for the 1992-93 school year.