Marin education office reports letup in enrollment declines

The overall enrollment decline at Marin’s public schools has leveled off since the onset of the pandemic, and some districts are growing, according to the county education office.

“We declined 5% in 2020-21, 4% in 2021-22 and 1% in 2022-23,” Kate Lane, a deputy county superintendent. “And it would appear we have declined another 1% in 2023-24.”

The Marin County Office of Education released initial attendance figures on Wednesday . The data include the first-day and sixth-day enrollment numbers for the new school year.

The county’s 17 school districts and four charter schools logged 29,068 students on their first day of school this year, compared to 29,288 at the same time last year. Districts with significant increases include San Rafael City Schools and the Lagunitas School District, Lane said.

Lagunitas recorded 157 students for first-day enrollment, an increase from 147 students at the same time last year. The San Rafael Elementary District had 4,197 students on the first day, up from 4,112 last year.

In the Ross Valley School District, first-day enrollment increased from 1,671 students last year to 1,700 this year. On the sixth day of school, however, the enrollment dropped to 1,646.

Ross Valley Charter’s first-day enrollment was 187 students, down from 205 last year. The school expected to have 218 students this year, according to its adopted budget.

“The real concern is that RVC’s enrollment has dropped significantly since budget adoption last spring,” said John Carroll, the Marin County superintendent of schools.

“Such a drop in numbers will be a major financial loss for RVC, so they will need to take steps to reduce spending. They have informed us that they are doing that,” Carroll said. “The MCOE team will look closely at RVC budget revisions and chart out, as closely as possible, their new budget picture.”

Because the charter is state-funded based on average daily attendance, the school will lose $11,635 in state per-student subsidies for each student lost, Lane said. The difference between 218 students and 187 students, therefore, amounts to nearly $361,000 less revenue than the school budgeted.

Also reporting a decline was the Sausalito Marin City School District. In its first-day tally, enrollment dropped from 283 students last year to 259 this year. The district is funded by local property taxes, however, and will not face a loss of state per-student subsidies.

Lane said most of the drop occurred at the middle school campus in Marin City, while the elementary campus in Sausalito increased enrollment. She had no word on what specifically caused the middle school decline, she said.

“It was not any particular demographic,” Lane said. “It was just lower than what was expected.”

More study needs to be done as to whether it was a migration to private schools, a family exodus out of the Bay Area or the district’s decision to deny most interdistrict transfer requests this year, Lane said.

The district, facing a tight budget, decided to cut back on interdistrict transfers in order to save money on staffing.

LaResha Huffman, the district’s new superintendent, said she is aware of the numbers and is focused on rebooting the district after years of upheaval.

“While academics can be one contributing factor for declining enrollment, we must understand that rebuilding is still occurring post-unification,” Huffman said, referring to the district’s merger of a charter school and a district school in 2021 after a state desegregation order.

“This year will be a significant year for our district as it will help us identify the contributing factors to the decline in enrollment,” she said.

Because academics “could be one of the many factors,” Huffman said, the district will focus efforts on “rigorous, consistent and equity-focused teaching and learning practices.” Over the summer, the district hired Elizabeth Henry for the new post of director of instruction.

In another area affected by interdistrict transfers, Lane said she wasn’t surprised to see an enrollment decline at the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District and an increase at the Reed Union School District. Their five-year interdistrict transfer agreement expired at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Both districts are funded by local property taxes, however. That means the Larkspur-Corte Madera district does not stand to lose any state per-student subsidies from the drop in students.

The Larkspur-Corte Madera district, which stopped accepting interdistrict transfers from families in the Reed Union section of east Corte Madera, declined from 1,229 students on the first day last year to 1,151 this year. Reed Union increased from 975 students last year to 995 this year.