School Enrollment Growth Rate Doubles

The rate of enrollment growth in Orange County public schools, which has been running at slightly more than 2% in recent years, more than doubled this school year, putting added strain on school districts already struggling to find ways to accommodate smaller class sizes.

An additional 20,579 students enrolled in the schools in the fall, raising the total student population to 442,913, according to data released Wednesday by the Orange County Department of Education.

This year’s growth, a 4.9% jump, exceeds the average 2% increases over the last three years. The unexpected spurt in enrollment has made it difficult for schools to keep pace with growth, officials said.

Fullerton Joint Union High School District saw the most dramatic increase, with enrollment soaring from 10,404 to 13,707--a one-year increase of 31.7%.

In Capistrano Unified, one of the districts grappling with the problem of reducing class sizes in the first through third grades, enrollment shot up by 7.5% this year.

Despite the opening of two new Capistrano Unified schools next year, spokeswoman Jackie Price said, “we’re always playing catch-up.”

The space crunch created by the drive for smaller classes has left some children at a disadvantage. At John Malcom Elementary in Laguna Niguel, only the first-grade classes have been slashed to meet the 20-to-1 pupil-teacher ratio that triggers increased state funding, while most other Capistrano Unified second- and third-graders enjoy smaller class sizes. Parents said they fear Malcom’s situation will only worsen with enrollment growth.

“They’re still building in our area and those homes would be assigned to our school,” Laguna Niguel parent Kathy Ellis said. “I don’t know how we’ll be manage next year.”

Rapid development in South County creates much of the explosive enrollment growth in districts such as Capistrano and Saddleback Valley Unified, officials said.

But older northern districts are also dealing with limited space.

“We’re running out of options,” said Neil McKinnon, assistant superintendent of Orange Unified, where trustees voted last week to convert six elementary schools to year-round campuses to accommodate growth.

“In past years, if we had a few extra rooms at various schools, we could move special programs into that area,” McKinnon added. “But we don’t have that anymore.”

The shortage of classrooms also made Orange Unified one of the last districts in the county to take even modest steps to shrink class sizes.

At Irvine Unified, where overcrowding hasn’t been a problem in the past, its campuses are becoming much more snug than parents and officials would like.

“We’re tighter than we’ve ever been,” Supt. Dennis Smith said. “Traditionally, schools come on line generally when we need them. But the student growth has been so fast that we’re getting overcrowded, especially at the high school level.”

Building new schools can be a torturously slow process in a state with a billion-dollar backlog of requests for new school facilities.

“If the current system remains clogged, we anticipate a very bleak future,” said Jim Murdoch, a researcher for the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, a Sacramento-based think tank that predicts that California will need $15 billion worth of new schools by 2006 to meet enrollment growth.

School officials attribute the rapid enrollment growth and overcrowding woes to a sudden resurgence in residential development, stepped-up migration and the Legislature’s push to reduce elementary class sizes to 20 pupils, which lured some students from private schools.

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More Students Everywhere

All of Orange County’s school districts gained enrollment in 1996 over the previous year, led by a more than 30% increase in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District:

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District 1995 1996 % change Anaheim City 18,359 19,471 6.0% Anaheim Union High School 24,412 25,577 4.8% Brea Olinda Unified 5,830 5,926 1.6% Buena Park 5,096 5,221 2.5% Capistrano Unified 34,929 37,539 7.5% Centralia 4,859 4,994 2.8% Cypress 4,499 4,618 2.6% Fountain Valley 6,027 6,051 0.4% Fullerton 11,498 11,880 3.3% Fullerton Joint Union High School 10,404 13,707 31.7% Garden Grove Unified 43,413 44,661 2.9% Huntington Beach 6,037 6,265 3.8% Huntington Beach Union High School 13,251 13,647 3.0% Irvine Unified 21,975 22,564 2.7% La Habra City 5,583 5,674 1.6% Laguna Beach Unified 2,501 2,504 0.1% Los Alamitos Unified 8,155 8,449 3.6% Magnolia 5,749 6,027 4.8% Newport-Mesa Unified 18,552 19,560 5.4% Ocean View 9,241 9,467 2.4% Orange Unified 27,432 28,294 3.1% Placentia-Yorba Linda 23,632 24,381 3.2% Saddleback Valley 30,115 31,834 5.7% Santa Ana Unified 50,268 52,107 3.7% Savanna 2,248 2,396 6.6% Tustin Unified 13,432 14,376 7.0% Westminster 8,999 9,250 2.8% County programs 5,838 6,473 10.9% Total 422,334 442,913 4.9%

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Source: Orange County Department of Education

Enrollment Rolls

The number of students at county public schools continues to grow, rising about 5% from 1995 to 1996:

1992: 399,665

1993: 402,264

1994: 412,249

1995: 422,334

1996: 442,913

Source: Orange County Department of Education