ANAHEIM : Enrollment in Two Largest Districts Up

Opening day enrollment at the city’s two largest school districts jumped more than 4% from last year.

Anaheim Union High School District’s enrollment rose 6.4%, while Anaheim City School District’s enrollment went up 4.8%.

Magnolia School District, the city’s third largest, saw its enrollment increase by 1.4%.

Savanna School District, the city’s smallest, opens today and does not yet have enrollment figures.

The high school district now has 20,428 students, compared to 19,194 students last September.

The district had 37,000 students at its peak in 1972, then went into an enrollment decline until two years ago, so it does have extra classroom space, said Rita Newman, the assistant superintendent for business.

The largest increase was in seventh- and eighth-graders, who are the district’s youngest students.

The district’s eight junior high schools reported that their combined enrollment reached 7,436, compared to 6,715 last September, an increase of 10.7%.

High school enrollment is up 4.1%.

“What we are seeing is an increase that we anticipated,” Newman said. “So as far as having accommodations to house our new students, we can do that.”

The city school district, which comprises 21 elementary schools, had 15,830 students last week, compared to 15,225 at this time last year.

But Jack Sarnicky, assistant superintendent of business administration, predicted that enrollment will level off and that by April 15 the increase will be less than 1%.

“Too many things affect opening day enrollments, so I don’t know how accurate they are,” Sarnicky said.

Enrollment at Magnolia’s eight elementary schools was 4,877 last week, compared to 4,812 last year.

Supt. Paul Mercier said that that is only about half the increase the district had expected and that it has led to the transfer of some teachers from schools that did not meet enrollment projections.