As the school year starts, many Bay Area districts are scrambling to manage issues such as staffing, supplies and, in some cases, declining enrollment.
"In reality, supply chain issues and issues with contractors and sub-contractors are real," Palo Alto Unified School District Superintendent Don Austin said. "At the end of the day, we have to start school today for our secondary schools and tomorrow for elementary if we’re ready or not."
Meanwhile, the five-year trend of declining enrollment hovers over many school districts. For example, according to Ed Data, districts such as Oak Grove Elementary in San Jose as well as New Haven and Newark in Alameda County saw a drop of more than 1,000 students in that time.
Parent Miguel Mariscal, who said he had children in the Oak Grove district throughout that period, blames COVID-19 and the Bay Area cost of living.
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"There was a lot of people that were able to relocate to a cheaper area and took their kids with them, but they were still able to work from home or the education from home and that’s the reason why," he said. "People left the area because there’s a lot of cheaper areas within California where you can do that."
Even Palo Alto Unified as well as some districts in Mountain View and Los Altos, which actually saw an uptick in student enrollment, still have to worry about drops at individual neighborhood schools and possible program cuts.
Some superintendents said they are optimistic about their numbers as things get back to normal after the pandemic but say it’ll take time because when families leave, they don’t always come back at the same pace.
