Schools losing students

Class sizes are shrinking in Huntington Beach’s public elementary schools, but high schools may grow for a few more years. In a state where more students means more funding, budgets are expected to get tighter in the future.

Officials in the elementary and high school districts watching the trends said the cause of the shift was a city without room for new families to move in, driving housing prices up — a city whose high quality of life keeps older residents from leaving.

“Huntington Beach is almost built out,” said Brian Rechsteiner, Huntington Beach City School District board president. “Unless something happens where single-family homes get taken down and high-rises take their place, there’s not many places left to build.”

New statewide school enrollment data has become available from the California Department of Education showing that in the 2006-07 school year, Orange County schools continued their decline in enrollment experienced over the last few years. Elementary schools in Huntington Beach are following that trend, but district officials said high schools may avoid it for a few more years.

The Huntington Beach City School District declined by 28 students to 6,571 enrolled districtwide in the 2006-07 school year. Though the loss was much smaller than the year before, the district still loses a few thousand dollars in state funding per student.

The Westminster Elementary School District, which operates a few schools in Huntington Beach, also lost 116 students over that time frame.

Consultants have told the city school district that declines will continue for five to 10 years, Rechsteiner said. That fact will certainly affect future budgets, he said, adding that the district is working hard to attract more students with its pre-school program.

“The reduced revenue from declining enrollment is a big factor to our budget,” he said. “For example, depending on what enrollment we want to have at our schools, will we need to close another school or not?”

While elementary schools shrank, the Huntington Beach Union High School District added 156 students in that period to reach a record high of 15,913.

The high school district is still flush with funds, said board trustee Brian Garland. As a result, they are already saving money for the decline they see coming when elementary school declines reach the high school years.

“We have the advantage, being a high school district, of seeing the future,” he said. “Our future is the elementary school district. As that bubble comes along from third grade to fourth, to fifth, to sixth, we can see that class size getting smaller and smaller.”