Faced with consistently declining enrollment in recent years, the Palo Alto Unified School District is looking at potential ways to address its shrinking student population without closing schools, which district officials say is the last resort but a possibility if action isn't taken.

The school board heard a report at a Tuesday, March 28, meeting from an ad hoc committee that was tasked with preparing a list of options to tackle declining enrollment. The committee included parents, school staff and administrators, school board members and a representative from the city of Palo Alto.

Juana Briones Elementary School Principal Katy Bimpson, who led the committee, presented the board with eight actions that could help address the issue, stressing that they were options, not recommendations.

"We realize that each option is complex and presents different questions, logistics and choices," Bimpson said.

Superintendent Don Austin told the board that there were three options he believed to be at the top of the list and should be considered more immediately:

1. Allowing Palo Alto city employees to enroll their children in the district.

2. Lowering the required number of hours that a district employee has to work for their children to be eligible to attend Palo Alto schools.

3. Creating an "early enrollment deadline," after which families may not get assigned to their neighborhood school.

The board was generally supportive of these three options, though Austin and board members noted that the early enrollment deadline had notable downsides to consider.

The enrollment issue was put on the agenda as a staff report, so no formal action was taken Tuesday. Austin told the board that he expects individual actions will come back to the board for a vote in the future.

The district's enrollment has declined roughly 16% since 2015, equating to nearly 2,000 fewer students last school year than in the 2015-2016 year, according to data from the California Department of Education.

Enrollment is uneven among the district's schools. The smallest elementary school (Barron Park) had under 200 students last school year while the largest (Escondido) had roughly 475.

Board President Jennifer DiBrienza in an interview with the Palo Alto Weekly that smaller schools cost more per student to operate because of fixed costs such as administrative staffing.

Board member Todd Collins noted at the board meeting that small schools lead to programmatic challenges, including increasing the need for combination classes, in which multiple grade levels are in the same classroom.

Unlike many school districts in the state, the biggest direct impact of Palo Alto Unified's shrinking student body isn't necessarily financial. That's because Palo Alto schools are funded through local property taxes rather than state funded based on the number of students. In California, a school district gets to keep its local tax revenue, rather than receive per-student funding, if the tax dollars exceed the per-student amount. This means that fewer kids attending local schools may actually mean more money for the district on a per-student basis.

"In a lot of other districts, we would have closed several schools by now — but closing schools is devastating. You only want to do that if you have to do it," DiBrienza said. "The only reason we haven't had to do it is because we have a strong property tax base."

One option that Austin said had district staff support was expanding the range of employees who are eligible to have their children attend the district. Currently, employees have to work at least 80% time to be eligible, DiBrienza said. One option would be to reduce that to 75%.

Meb Steiner, president of the district's California School Employees Association chapter that represents classified employees — which includes positions like classroom aides, custodians and office staff — spoke in favor of the change. Steiner said that most classified jobs in the district are 75% time or less.

Collins noted that roughly 200 children of employees currently attend district schools.

Board members were broadly supportive of expanding the number of staff who can send their children to Palo Alto schools. A particular benefit, board members said, is that since these children live outside district boundaries, they can generally be placed at any school, rather than being limited to their neighborhood assignment. This gives the district more options to balance enrollment between schools.

That's also a benefit of allowing city staff members to enroll their children, which board members also voiced approval for. City Manager Ed Shikada attended the meeting to support the proposal, noting that it could be a tool for the city to retain employees.

Shikada noted, however, that a recent survey of city staff showed only about 20% of those with school-age children would be interested in sending them to Palo Alto Unified, equating to about 100 potential students.

Collins said that while some may question why city employees should get free access to Palo Alto schools, while residents have to pay to live in the community, he noted the long-standing relationship between the city and school district, with collaboration on various issues.

Board member Shana Segal asked what would happen to a city employee's children if the parent loses their job. While nothing is finalized, Austin said, the policy would likely mirror the rules for district employees, which means that children usually have to leave the district. Segal said she wants to hear more about the proposal because she generally supports systems in which kids stay at their school.

"The city over time has done a really solid job contributing to the well-being of the school district and the communities that we serve by doing their part," Collins said. "This is part of an overall, long-term, perpetual relationship between two partners who serve the same constituents."

The third option that Austin asked for the board's input on was creating an early enrollment deadline. That possibility drew a more complex, though still largely supportive, response from the board.

The big benefit, Austin said, is that it could reduce mixed-grade classes by enabling the district to place families who enroll late at a campus that has space. Currently, last-minute enrollment can lead schools to have to shuffle classes around, potentially creating combination classes right before a school year begins.

The downside, according to Austin, is that families who move to the district later and buy a house near a school may not be able to attend that school.

Board members echoed both of these points. DiBrienza and Collins both called it a "pick your poison" situation but said they would defer to district administrators. Collins said he leaned towards putting in the deadline, noting the benefits of having the process run more predictably. DiBrienza said that she had hesitation about the change but knew the benefits of having a smoother start to the school year.

Whether the enrollment deadline comes back to the board for a vote or is a staff-level decision will depend on the specifics of the proposal and current district policy, DiBrienza told the Weekly.

Full list of options from ad hoc committee

Below are the eight options that the ad hoc committee presented for board consideration.

• Consider adjusting/expanding residential boundaries.

• Consider both embracing and eliminating combination classes.

• Consider creating an early enrollment deadline and moving any new or late registrants to schools with space.

• Consider expanding language immersion programs.

• Consider themed-school model for Ohlone and Hoover where they would become neighborhood schools with themes and hold a percentage of lottery seats.

• Invite fulltime Palo Alto city employees to bring their children to PAUSD through a lottery system.

• Barron Park and Briones function as one school with two campuses where one of the campuses is the upper grades (3-5) and the other campus is the lower (TK-2) grades.

• Reduce the FTE percentage required for PAUSD employees to bring their children to PAUSD.