Bringing West San Carlos Back into the San Carlos School District?

April 5, 2012

“One San Carlos.”

For as long as I've lived in San Carlos, which is nearing 24 years,  the Alameda has served as a dividing line between the San Carlos School and Redwood City School Districts between Eaton and Brittan Avenues — even though that stretch of road does not serve as the boundary between the two cities.  So in other words, there's a sizable chunk of the western side of San Carlos that falls inside the Redwood City School District Boundary, and not the San Carlos School District.

This phenomenon is not unique to San Carlos. A significant part of Mountain View falls under the Los Altos School District, and even parts of northern San Carlos are zoned for the Belmont Redwood Shores School District.

For those who live in western part of San Carlos, their primary school is Clifford School.     Here's a map which approximates the area in question:


View SC/Clifford Boundary in a larger map

But if one San Carlos resident has his way, he'd like to use the upcoming talk of a new school bond measure as a springboard to annex the western portion of San Carlos back into the San Carlos School District.  Gabriel Brenner has started a movement called “One San Carlos“, and he's hoping to unite other homeowners in his quest to make San Carlos Schools available to all San Carlos residents.

As the San Carlos School District considers yet another bond measure to fund the additional capacity necessary to accommodate the growing enrollment in the city, Brenner feels that this is the right time to look at the bigger picture of the future of the San Carlos School District.  For more details, check out the One San Carlos page on Facebook that he has started.

An Uphill Battle.

Whether one agrees with this idea or not, it goes without saying that it faces a strong uphill battle.   First, money and land are two precious commodities that the school district desperately needs to handle its projected growth.    More of both will be required to handle the additional surge of enrollment that would result from this type of annexation.

The other hurdle is public sentiment.   There are quite a few west San Carlos families who are delighted with Clifford School and may not support an initiative to change the school boundaries.    It will be interesting to see what kind of public support this initiative garners.

One thing is for sure, it should make for a lively discussion.    What are your thoughts on this?

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3 Comments

  1. GoodLuckWithThat on April 9, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    How is this going to go?

    Dear San Carlos School District (read: everyone who already paid up to be within the disctrict),
    Please consider letting our kids into your already impacted schools……it’s for the kids after all (read: not that it would help my property value in any way).

    Dear Redwood City School District (we bought/live in your boundaries, but really meant to be in White Oaks…my bad!),
    Please allow us to take what is likely some of the highest property tax payers in your district and shift them over to what is already a basic aid district. Additionally, this potentially could impact the test scores at Clifford if our kids go to another school. You guys are cool with that, right? It’s for the kids after all.

    Good Luck With That!



  2. SC Resident on April 10, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    This is an excellent idea and perfect timing with the proposed bond measure to build more capacity for the San Carlos Schools. It makes sense to include all San Carlos families into the the San Carlos School District and adding more students would provide more revenue for the district. Many other cities & school districts across the state have done this. It would also help to ease the overcrowding at Clifford & the Redwood City School District, who as far as I know don’t have any plans to build more space for their increasing student population.



  3. MIchael on April 10, 2012 at 7:03 pm

    I think this is a foolish way to spend resources, bond measure or not. The proponents are trying to get into the better schools without having had to pay the premium the rest of had to to be in the San Carlos school district. And best of all, the rest of us have to pick up the tab for this to happen. I hope this idea fails. We have bigger fish to fry.



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