Although La Cañada school board members expected to bump inter-district enrollment to 11% next year from the current 10% level, they learned Tuesday they may be forced to increase La Cañada Unified’s percentage of non-resident students even further due to declining resident enrollment.
While the district projects the graduation of 360 students each year over the coming three years, just 147 La Cañada children are enrolled in the incoming kindergarten class, according to Supt. Jim Stratton.
“The figure of real concern here is the number of resident kindergarten students,” Stratton said.
Accepting such small class sizes year after year could force the district to shut down one of its elementary schools and would force La Cañada High to cut back on a number of “hallmark, beacon” programs because there’s not enough bodies to fill them, said Stratton, who advocates boosting out-of-district enrollment to as much as 15%.