It’s Official: Carlmont High School is Full.

May 9, 2008

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If you live in San Carlos and applied to have your high school-bound student attend Carlmont High School this fall, you probably already know this…but for the first time in recent memory (or possibly ever,) Carlmont High School has declined a significant number of inter-district transfer requests. Numbers that I've heard discussed indicate that far fewer than 50% of the applications received from San Carlos residents were granted acceptance, with siblings of current Carlmont students getting priority.

Why? Carlmont is now at its “defined” capacity. It's essentially full.

To the credit of the Sequoia Union High School District board, I think they made the necessary effort to ensure that this wouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Early last year, they got the word out that the Carlmont enrollment issue was going to be addressed, and they invited the public to attend the numerous board meetings to discuss it. These meetings were well attended by San Carlos residents. So whether you agree with the board's statistics and their action plan or not, they pretty much did what they said they were going to do.

What does this mean for most San Carlos residents? Until Carlmont either adds more capacity, or the current “bubble” of incoming students works its way through, it's going to be very tough to get into this school. Consequently, your second and third options will now become very important. This also means that this fall's incoming class of freshmen at Sequoia High School will likely see the biggest number of San Carlos students in recent memory. Not a bad thing, either — Sequoia is really turning things around, as I've discussed in detail in this blog. Click here for that post –> Sequoia High School.

Is this a cause for panic for San Carlos homeowners? Will this cause home values to drop? No. This is a temporary situation, and an equilibrium point will be struck between the enrollments at Sequoia and Carlmont, which should open the doors to both schools again. It's actually a plus for San Carlos, because we really have TWO good public high school options, not just one. This current situation will make everyone finally discover the other good school.

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3 Comments

  1. SanCarlosRez on May 10, 2008 at 4:05 am

    Chuck

    Have you heard of plans to expand Carlmont’s capacity?
    Your article above references that as a possible way for more San Carlos residents to attend Carlmont.

    As I understand it, Sequoia has hundreds of open spaces currently, so why would the district expand Carlmont?



  2. chuck on May 10, 2008 at 5:03 am

    You’re correct — Sequoia is well below its capacity, and has room for hundreds of additional students. Last summer, the school board discussed the possibility of adding capacity to Carlmont as one of several possible solutions to the enrollment problem.

    On the surface, that idea sounds absurd since there was plenty of room at Sequoia. But at that time, there was so much pressure being put on the school board by parents who wouldn’t consider Sequoia as a solution, that they had to take a serious look at it.

    Since then, the administration of Sequoia has done a fantastic job of educating the San Carlos community on the programs they have in place there, and many of the same families who wouldn’t consider sending their kids to Sequoia are now happily doing just that (I’m one of them.) With that pressure alleviated, the possibility of any expansion at Carlmont to appease inter-district transfers has pretty much disappeared.

    Thanks for your comments,

    Chuck



  3. Parent on June 4, 2010 at 9:20 pm

    Hi, I know this was from 2008 but I was going to be moving to San Carlos and wanted my two children from the Cupertino Union School District to go to this school. Is enrollment still an issue with the new construction? Thanks Chuck, hope to hear from you



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