A Community of Learners
PLANNING
Facilities Planning
* Facts and Questions
* Additional Resources / Meeting Minutes & Highlights
The Larkspur School District has experienced significant enrollment growth for the past several years. In the fall of 2006, the district’s Board of Trustees adopted, as one of its strategic priorities, the development of a flexible long-range plan to manage continued enrollment growth. Current projections indicate that student numbers appear to be three quarters of the way through an enrollment peak. Still, there is a need to add additional classroom space by the fall of 2008, to accommodate recent years of larger than “historically normal” kindergarten enrollment.
Enrollment trend analyses in a school district are developed using several variables. One method involves a straight-line projection of student enrollment year to year. This method tends to paint an inaccurate picture because it does not take into account certain relevant demographic data, such as housing turnover or new housing development. The district has calculated its growth rate based on multiple variables incorporating housing turnover, mortgage rate patterns and other available data from external sources such as shopping mall managers. We believe that enrollment growth in the Larkspur School District will likely level off in 2011 at 1250-1300 students. The district is using this projection to develop housing recommendations.
At their meeting in January 2007, the Board of Trustees reviewed enrollment trends, educational specifications reports and facilities capacities charts and requested that Supt. Valerie Pitts establish a Superintendent’s Advisory Committee to review land use and facilities options as they related to enrollment growth. To that end, the district formed an Enrollment, Land Use and Facilities (ELF) committee, which includes representatives from each constituent group including parents, staff, administration and trustees. Members were appointed to ensure this broad range of representation, experience and expertise. Committee meetings were scheduled bi-weekly and began in March.
The ELF committee’s specific charge is to review enrollment trends, facilities capacity and land use options, and to 1) make recommendations for facilities needed to accommodate students at Neil Cummins Elementary School in grades K-4 in the fall of 2008 and at Hall Middle School in the fall of 2009; and 2) develop a long-range facilities/land use plan. Recommendations need to address short-term needs with as much flexibility for long-term use as possible.
Thus far, the ELF committee has focused its efforts on the short term housing needs for fall 2008. One option being discussed includes adding to the campus at Neil Cummins Elementary, which would involve use of district property currently used for fields and play areas in Town Park. This plan proposes creating a “school within a school”; upper/lower campus at Neil Cummins, designed to foster smaller learning community environments and use of alternative paths for entrance to the campus. Another option under discussion involves the use of San Clemente Park. The chief benefit of this option is that it would address the needs of students who reside on the east side of Corte Madera. The main problem with construction and opening of a school at San Clemente Park is that it is more costly than other options, which can have a broader impact on district finances and is less flexible should enrollment level off or decrease in future years.
The superintendent and the ELF committee are seeking to communicate with and involve members of the communities of Larkspur and Corte Madera as the District develops a plan that will continue to offer the excellent educational programs the Larkspur School District currently provides for all its students. Students are the focus of all we do and we know everyone shares a commitment to finding a quality solution for school facilities as we prepare the future leaders of our community. To this end, the ELF committee recommends the establishment of a study group to thoroughly research future needs in relation to the long term vision of the district and to make recommendations that include a facilities and property use master plan and, finance and revenue enhancement strategies.
An interim report of the ELF committee’s recommendations was made to the Board of Trustees at its June 27 meeting at Hall Middle School. Trustees heard public input, discussed the recommendations, and generated a list of questions to be addressed by the ELF committee at the August 30 meeting of the Board of Trustees. For more information on the ELF committee, please visit the Larkspur School District’s website at www.larkspurschools.org