COUNTYWIDE : Schools’ Enrollment Hits Record

Enrollment in county elementary and secondary schools has soared to an all-time high, fueled in large part by minorities who now make up nearly half of all students, according to the Orange County Department of Education.

Nearly 391,000 students were enrolled in the county’s 27 school districts as of fall, 1991, up from the previous record of about 386,000 in the middle 1970s. The increase of 15,347 students over the fall, 1990, figures would be the equivalent of adding more than 15 new elementary schools in a single year.

County Schools Supt. John F. Dean predicted that new arrivals could raise the final tally for the 1991-92 academic year another 1,500 to 1,800 students by June. These numbers are a clear sign that minorities are soon to be a majority of county students--a demographic shift that already has overtaken Los Angeles County and the state.

Minority students make up 49.2% of all county students, up from 48% last year. With their increasing numbers come hefty challenges to educate students whose native language is not English and who have a dramatically different cultural background.

“We are virtually half minority now, or rapidly approaching that,” Dean said. “So not only do we have more children per class, we have the extra demand (of) children who don’t have basic English language skills.”

This poses a formidable challenge--both in finances and in teacher training--for many districts, especially those whose students have been predominantly white until recently.

“It’s a matter of getting prepared to handle the diversity of language and cultures,” Dean said. “For teachers who tend to be monolingual, well, it’s just difficult.”

Garden Grove Unified posted the largest gain in enrollment, adding 1,795 students last fall, for a total of 39,764. It will reopen two campuses now rented to Rancho Santiago College and the Jewish Federation of Orange County.

Garden Grove has been heavily minority for several years, and its students speak 70 languages. But district spokesman Alan Trudell said the 1991-92 school year is the first time that whites are not the largest ethnic group.

Latinos have long outnumbered all other ethnic groups in neighboring Santa Ana Unified, which is regarded as a statewide leader in providing bilingual education for its students. They now make up nearly 85% of the district’s 47,700 students.

Santa Ana, already bursting from soaring enrollment over the past decade, saw the county’s second-highest enrollment increase--1,736 new students last fall. Despite a lot of creative efforts and planning to build 12 new schools by 1995, growth is galloping ahead.

“In the last two years, we’ve grown 14%,” district spokeswoman Diane Thomas said. “By the year 2000, we ought to be around 70,000 students. . . . Our goal is to keep up” with the growth.

In South County, new homes and immigration have caused Capistrano Unified enrollment to jump 1,543 students and Saddleback Valley Unified to gain 1,415; both are building schools.

In North County, 1,452 new students spelled Anaheim Union’s first enrollment jump in 17 years. Only the Placentia-Yorba Linda and Los Alamitos Unified saw an increase in white students last fall. The 20% jump in percentage of whites in Placentia-Yorba Linda is largely attributed to new housing developments.

Changing Ethnicity of Orange County Schools

%Pac Isla %White %Latino %Black %Asian /Fil School District 1990 1991 1990 1991 1990 1991 1990 1991 1990 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICTS Anaheim City 31 28 58 61 3 3 6 6 2 Buena Park 43 41 37 37 5 6 12 13 3 Centralia 54 53 23 24 4 5 15 14 4 Cypress 65 64 17 17 3 3 12 12 3 Fountain Valley 73 73 8 8 1 1 17 17 1 Fullerton 50 49 31 31 2 3 16 16 1 Huntington Beach 81 81 10 10 1 1 8 8 * La Habra City 43 42 53 55 1 1 3 2 * Magnolia 46 44 37 39 4 4 10 10 3 Ocean View 69 67 15 17 2 1 12 12 1 Savanna 57 54 24 27 5 5 9 9 4 Westminster 44 40 28 28 1 1 24 26 2 HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICTS Anaheim Union 45 41 37 40 3 3 12 12 3 Fullerton Joint 45 42 40 43 2 2 12 12 1 Union Huntington Beach 60 56 13 14 1 1 18 20 2 Union UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTS Brea-Olinda 75 71 17 19 1 2 6 7 1 Capistrano 81 80 13 13 1 1 4 5 1 Garden Grove 36 33 35 36 1 2 26 27 2 Irvine 72 71 6 6 3 3 18 19 1 Laguna Beach 88 85 8 10 1 1 2 2 1 Los Alamitos 78 79 9 9 4 3 7 7 2 Newport-Mesa 67 65 22 25 1 1 9 8 1 Orange Unified 60 58 26 28 2 2 11 11 1 Placentia-Yorba 69 68 19 20 2 2 9 9 1 Linda Saddleback Valley 80 79 9 10 2 2 8 8 1 Santa Ana 6 6 83 85 2 2 8 7 1 Tustin 58 56 24 26 5 6 10 10 2 County Programs 45 44 44 43 4 4 6 6 1 TOTALS 52 51 32 33 2 2 12 12 2

ific %American nder Indian /Alaska ipino Native School District 1991 1990 1991 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICTS Anaheim City 2 * * Buena Park 3 * * Centralia 4 * * Cypress 3 * 1 Fountain Valley 1 * * Fullerton 1 * * Huntington Beach * * * La Habra City * * * Magnolia 3 * * Ocean View 2 1 1 Savanna 4 1 1 Westminster 2 1 3 HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICTS Anaheim Union 3 * 1 Fullerton Joint 1 * * Union Huntington Beach 2 6 7 Union UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTS Brea-Olinda 1 * * Capistrano 1 * * Garden Grove 2 * * Irvine 1 * * Laguna Beach 1 * 1 Los Alamitos 2 * * Newport-Mesa 1 * * Orange Unified 1 * * Placentia-Yorba 1 * * Linda Saddleback Valley 1 * * Santa Ana * * * Tustin 2 1 * County Programs 2 * 1 TOTALS 1 * 1

* Less than 1%

Source: Orange County Department of Education

Compiled by April Jackson / Los Angeles Times