San Dieguito Union High School District enrollment workshop scheduled to be held Aug. 31

A tentative date of Aug. 31 has been set for a workshop on how the San Dieguito Union High School District will enroll high school students in the future, including the possibility of drawing new boundaries. At that meeting, there will be a presentation on the options, limited public comment and board discussion with a recommendation on what they would like the district to do.

At the June 16 district meeting, Superintendent Rick Schmitt said the district’s recent commitment to add more classes to La Costa Canyon and Torrey Pines high schools in the 2016-17 school year may put a dent in the high school enrollment challenges facing the district. One of the No. 1 drivers of students to the open-enrollment academies of San Dieguito and Canyon Crest is the bell schedule and program options; Schmitt hopes that giving students more options will affect how people feel about high school enrollment.

Michael Grove, associate superintendent of educational services, said the district received 2,175 responses from their survey on enrollment, a 10 percent response rate. His summer reading assignment includes going through all of those surveys to ensure the board has all of the information needed to make a decision. The survey input will be paired with input from the six public meetings that were held.

With the district’s current enrollment practice, San Dieguito and CCA are open boundary schools. If more students select the school than there are available seats, the district decides who gets in through a random lottery. No preference is given to proximity.

Residents of West Encinitas, Leucadia and Cardiff by the Sea, surrounding San Dieguito Academy, have been gathering signatures over the past month on an online petition to get the district to change the open enrollment policy to ensure that students can attend their neighborhood school.