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Board says no to open enrollment
FUHSD cites limited capacities in schools as reason for denial
By Kevin Fayle
The Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD) decided to continue this year's policy of not allowing open intradistrict enrollment into the next school year. The district said it made this decision because of the limited capacities of schools during the construction phase of its facilities modernization plan.
Harry Bettencourt, director of student and community services for FUHSD, says the district usually allows a small number of students within the district to enroll in schools they are not zoned for, "as long as there's capacity, and the transfer won't upset the school's ethnic balance."
The district makes the decision on a yearly basis, so the number of students allowed to roam varies from year to year. The number the district has allowed to enroll in open schools in the past ranges from 25 to close to 130.
Bettencourt says they aren't allowing transfers this year because every school is at its capacity. Because of the ongoing construction at the FUHSD campuses, the district has found it necessary to close some permanent classrooms and employ temporary buildings. The district can only afford the absolute minimum number of buildings at each campus, as additional buildings would remove funds from the permanent upgrade budget. An open enrollment policy would only incur transfer costs, thus the school district decided to suspend the policy.
The decision shouldn't cause too much turmoil for students, since this will be the second consecutive year without open enrollments. According to Bettencourt, the district foresaw the difficulties of open enrollment when construction began last summer, so it decided to suspend the practice indefinitely. Bettencourt doesn't know when the practice will resume, but says that, "it's possible that as we complete buildings, adding capacity, then a school with additional capacity may be opened."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
