HUNTINGTON BEACH : Falling Enrollment to Mean Fund Loss

The Huntington Beach Union High School District stands to lose up to $2.1 million next year because enrollment continues to decline, board members were told this week.

But school officials said there is no need to panic.

The district governs all public high schools in Huntington Beach, Westminster and Fountain Valley. All those high schools have been declining in enrollment in recent years, and the overall district has dropped from 19,709 students in October, 1979, to 12,916 students in October, 1993.

District officials on Tuesday night gave the school board a gloomy forecast for continued loss of students through this year and the next. The officials said no increase in enrollment is predicted until 1996.

School officials have previously attributed the decline in enrollment to the high cost of housing and have said there are fewer homes with school-age children.

Officials said the loss of enrollment causes financial problems for school districts because state funding is based on a complex formula geared to daily attendance. Enrollment in the district dropped by 455 students between September and March.

Supt. David Hagen told the school board that a state law protects districts with declining enrollment from loss of money during a one-year period.

“The good news is that we are still able to claim our prior year (state funding base),” said Hagen.

That means the district suffers no immediate money loss for the decline of students in the current school year. But Hagen and acting Asst. Supt. Werner Deffner warned that the current-year loss will require painful budget cutting for the district in the 1994-95 school year.

Deffner said: “Our decline is much more severe than we anticipated. For this next year, the (continuing loss of students) will cost us about $2.1 million. Before we get out of the gate for the next (school) year, that’s how much we will lose.”

Deffner said that by the 1995-96 school year, the district should have a slight increase. “Hopefully, at that point things will get a little better for us, but we’ve still got a pretty hard road ahead of us before we get there,” Deffner said.

District Decrease Huntington Beach Union High School District has generally suffered declining enrollment since 1979. The only year-to-year increases came in 1984 and 1991. Annual October enrollment: ‘92: 12,916 Source: Huntington Beach Union High School District