New school helps district face rising enrollment

Student enrollment is swelling this year in Los Banos schools.

“Everything that I’ve heard from the schools has been positive,” Assistant Superintendent Paul Enos said about the first week of school. “We had a little more growth than anticipated.”

Junior high and high schools for Los Banos Unified School District started Aug. 10. Elementary schools started the next day.

Enos said the school district, and Pacheco High School specifically, has seen a notable increase in students this year due to new residential development in Los Banos.

About 80 students more than anticipated registered at Pacheco, Enos said. The student population as of Monday was 1,648, Enos said. In comparison, Los Banos High School has 1,363 students.

“There are no empty classrooms at (Pacheco),” Enos said, noting that student headcount numbers this year were an “anomaly” from the average 2.5 percent growth per year.

Also, if Creekside Junior High School hadn’t opened this year, Los Banos Junior High, the only other non-continuation school in the district for seventh- and eighth-students, would have approached 1,650 students.

Instead, the new school is housing 700 students, with Los Banos Junior High at 945 students. Last year, about 1,600 students were enrolled at Los Banos Junior High.

Enos said Monday that enrollment in the elementary schools was 947 for R.M. Miano, 919 for Los Banos, 863 for Lorena Falasco, 838 for Henry Miller, 728 for Westside Union, 423 for Mercey Springs and 413 for Volta.

Total student population as of Monday was 10,350, Enos said. That’s up 242 students from October last year, or about 2.4 percent. The school district typically sees more students register as the school year progresses.

The addition of the new junior high school meant changes for bus transportation as well. There have been no major bus incidents as of Tuesday.

“In the past, we had students from all over town bus to Los Banos Junior High,” Enos said. “Now, some routes are heading to Creekside.”

Enos said the boundaries between Creekside and Los Banos Junior High aren’t perfect. Some students live closer to one school but attend the other.

Several bus routes were tweaked and reworked as the school year started, causing some affected residents to voice their frustration at the school district. Enos said tweaks to bus routes happen every year and some families are affected every year.

This story was originally published August 19, 2016 at 6:22 PM with the headline "New school helps district face rising enrollment."