Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning

School Enrollment Changes Affecting Barron Park Schools

Guest Speaker: Ken Dauber, School Board Member

Ken will discuss the proposed enrollment changes that will affect Barron Park Schools and increase traffic on Arastradero, Barron Park, and the rest of the city and what we can do about it.

Simply put: We need MORE neighborhood schools in areas with the most children to decrease class size and decrease unnecessary commuting.

Background: The city is undergoing an unprecedented growth spurt: most new development applications include multiple housing units. Currently, 250 high density housing units are under construction in College Terrace, for Stanford affiliated residents.

To accommodate the children expected to enter the schools from just those 250 units, an appointed task force proposal to PAUSD board recommended that Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto Hills elementary school children (who now attend Nixon and Escondido) be shifted to Juana Briones Elementary School, and that Barron Park School be made a new choice (magnet) school that students from all over town would attend– how many is unknown.

This would increase enrollment at Juana Briones, displace local children who attend Barron Park Elementary, causing them to have to commute to other schools while other children commute in, thus greatly increasing traffic on Arastradero and into/out of Barron Park. (Est 200 ROUND TRIPS a day on Arastradero JUST from the children transferred from Nixon and Escondido.)

Another alternative being recommended by this committee to the school board is for the Spanish Immersion program to be moved from Escondido to one of our Barron Park schools. That’s up to 500 MORE round trips per day into and out of Barron Park to bring 254 students to immersion programs!

This plan does not account for the children expected to arrive from all the other high density housing plans in the city, along El Camino and elsewhere!

Additionally, the Palo Verde school is completely full: LOTS of young children in the Palo Verde neighborhood (southeast Palo Alto) are driven to other schools. This increases traffic and diminishes a sense of neighborhood for families in that part of town and elsewhere.

The pressure to continuously accommodate a larger population has resulted more traffic, longer commute times, and a less friendly and cohesive community.

Rather than continuing to displace and transport children, what we need is MORE neighborhood schools to which children can walk.

Palo Alto has historically held that neighborhood schools are valuable, healthy social centers where families can get to know one another, create lasting friendships, and where parents can easily participate in their children’s education. We have always wanted and expected this from our school system.

Commuter schools are not part of the plan, nor should they be.

And, what about school size? Most of our elementary schools are already larger than is recommended, and much larger than in the past. The district has responded by placing portables on existing campuses. Using portables to reduce overcrowded classrooms ALSO reduces green space and play space at the same time the children’s needs for it increase.

Our district has a budget surplus ($6 M) and could open schools (Garland and Greendell) that are now rented for revenue. These schools should be used to help re-establish the important principle of walkable, peaceful access to neighborhood schools.