Schools in the Ross Valley School District are feeling the pinch of increased enrollment. Over the last two years, enrollment has increased. Some of the district’s schools exceeded their capacity this year including Manor School in Fairfax and the lower Brookside campus in San Anselmo, resulting in some Manor kindergartners attending Wade Thomas & Brookside.
For all the details, read the letter below that was sent out to families in the district.
December 14, 2007
Dear Families of Ross Valley,
Ross Valley School District has experienced growing Kindergarten enrollment for the past two years, stretching the capacity our facilities. We are sending this Fact Sheet to all of our families so that you receive up-to-date information and know the steps we will take to accommodate incoming Kindergarten students.
If you have questions, please contact your site administrator(s).
Brookside Lower School David Finnane, Principal 415.453.2948
Brookside Upper School Tracy Smith, Principal 415.454.7409
Manor School Catalina Nocon, Principal 415.453.1544
Wade Thomas School Chad Carvey, Principal 415.454.4603
White Hill Middle School Michele Patterson, Principal 415.454.8390
Nancy Wasserman, Asst. Principal
District Office Superintendent’s Office 415.451.4060
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I assure you that our students and their families are our primary focus in all of our decisions, and we are doing as much as we can to accommodate our growing student population. We encourage community participation as we work to solve this challenge.
Sincerely,
Bryce Sumnick
Superintendent
Ross Valley School District
Our GROWING Enrollment and Facilities Challenge
Fact Sheet
WHAT IS THE CONCERN?
Ross Valley School District has experienced larger than average Kindergarten enrollments for the past two years. We will have a better sense of whether this challenge will continue in the next year after we hold our Kindergarten Orientations in January 2008, and continue to gather data from our pre-school surveys. Our students and families are very important to us and we want to make decisions that will impact the fewest families possible. Therefore, younger siblings of current students will have priority registration if registered by March 1, 2008. We hope that through education, community discussions, and providing choices to families we are able to create positive solutions to our enrollment issues.
CURRENT AND PROJECTED IMPACTS
We exceeded our school classroom capacity at Brookside Lower campus this year, and had to move the daycare program to the Multi-Use Room. Manor’s Kindergarten also exceeded its classroom space, and as a result a few Kindergarteners are attending Wade Thomas and Brookside. Our pre-school surveys already indicate that our Kindergarten enrollment will likely exceed our classroom capacity at some sites next fall.
ARE WE CURRENTLY ACCEPTING STUDENTS WHO LIVE OUTSIDE THE DISTRICT?
We have been unable to accommodate most of those requests in grades K-3 in the past two years, as our enrollment has increased. We will continue to give priority to our district students and younger siblings of current students as our policies permit, and only accept students who reside outside our district when we are sure we can accommodate them without displacing resident students. Our current Kindergarten does not have any new families from outside the district.
CLASSROOM SPACE
We currently have a few available classrooms at Wade Thomas and Upper Brookside. As our enrollment grows, we would first like to take advantage of that available space before looking at other solutions that would cause financial, space, or programmatic impacts.
WHAT ABOUT PORTABLES?
We have looked at adding portables to our campuses as a possible solution, but right now it is not the preferred plan. Why? Because adding portables to campuses has financial and other impacts. We are finding that the cost of adding one portable classroom can cost anywhere between $107,000-$250,000, depending on the plumbing/electrical/sewage infrastructure in place and where the portables can be located. We currently have our campuses and facilities set-up in a way that preserves the integrity of the school sites and programs we offer. Adding more classrooms and students to our full campuses will significantly impact our schools.
WHAT ABOUT OPENING A CLOSED SCHOOL?
We have two closed school campuses (Red Hill and Deer Park) which are currently rented to childcare and other businesses. These campuses have been closed for over 20 years and it would take as much as $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 to re-open a school. There are also many other day-to-day costs involved in opening a full school facility. We will need to be absolutely sure that our enrollment continues to increase and justifies re-opening a school before proceeding in this direction.
WHO IS WORKING ON THIS ISSUE?
We have our Facilities Executive Committee, which has been in place for over 7 years, working on gathering the data. This committee recently presented the data and possible solutions to our District Leadership Council (consisting of over 35 teachers, administrators, classified staff, parents and other community members) and we are working to problem-solve these challenges. We plan to meet again January 7, 2008, to further discuss this topic.
HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE?
We will have more information when we hold our Kindergarten Orientations in January 2008. Please look for more information and opportunities for input in your upcoming school bulletins and on the web at www.rossvalleyschools.org.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
1) This spring we will be asking all new families to consider whether or not they might be interested in having their child attend another school in the district by choice. We will be asking families to select their schools in order of preference. We were able to meet the needs of several families this way last year, and it helped us to reduce the impact on other families by moving those who chose to move first.
2) We have New Enrollment Dates. We are moving our enrollment dates to earlier in the year and creating priority registration dates.
The 1st Priority Registration date is March 1. Any family who currently has children enrolled at a school who registers by this date will be assured a placement at their home school. If enrollment exceeds capacity for new families, we will move into a priority driven lottery. This means that younger siblings will be given top priority, and then we will place other students from the school’s attendance area next.
The 2nd Enrollment Period will be March 2 through April 15, during which we will fill remaining slots for students registered through that period. Additional information will be distributed at our Kindergarten Orientations.
KINDERGARTEN ORIENTATION DATES
We welcome and encourage families to attend any or all of our orientations, so that you can find out about our Kindergarten program and each of our schools.
SITE ADDRESS DATE TIME
Brookside Lower Campus 116 Butterfield Rd., San Anselmo January 16 6:30 p.m.
Manor Elementary School 150 Oak Manor Drive, Fairfax January 9 7:00 p.m.
Multiage Program (MAP) 150 Oak Manor Dr., Fairfax January 17 7:00 p.m.
(At Manor School)
Wade Thomas School 150 Ross Ave., San Anselmo January 10 7:00 p.m.
KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION
Kindergarten registration begins on January 22, 2008, at all sites.