One of the best high schools in the country is overcrowded — and Folsom parents are worried

Vista del Lago High School is perched on a Folsom hilltop surrounded by million dollar homes. Families move to the area specifically to send their children to the school known for its Science Olympiad, Science Bowl and technology curriculum.

Roughly four miles away is Folsom High School, consistently ranked one of the best high schools in the nation. Its reputation extends well beyond the city for which it’s named, driven by its stellar music program and unrivaled football program.

Choosing between the schools would, for many parents, seem like choosing between Ivy League universities. But for some Folsom parents, the possibility of their children being zoned for one high-achieving school over the other has become painstakingly stressful.

That’s because over the course of several months, Folsom Cordova Unified School District considered shifting hundreds of students who were set to attend Vista del Lago to Folsom High. School district officials have said they are trying to alleviate overcrowding at Vista, which is already over capacity.

The district held off for weeks voting on how to rezone school boundaries in Folsom that would ultimately place more students at Folsom High. After receiving hundreds of emails and holding community meetings, the district ultimately voted on Nov. 21 to move Blanche Sprentz Elementary School to Folsom High’s attendance zone, away from Vista.

Families affected by the rezoning said they had nothing against Folsom High, but were worried that their young children, who were set to attend Vista del Lago, would no longer be on a continuous feeder pattern into the same high school as their life-long friends — a school experience many families favor.

School board Vice President Chris Clark said he understands the desire to stay at the same school as one’s friends and siblings, but that the new system will create an opportunity to expand students’ network, just as they will have to do in college and in their careers.

“We are really scratching the surface,” Clark said at the Nov. 21 board meeting. “You (parents) asked us to keep an open mind, so I am going to ask you as parents to do the same thing.”

In recent months, the district explored several options to rezone where elementary and middle school students would attend high school. District polling, research and discussions between district officials led them to settle on options focused on where students from Folsom Hills and Blanche Sprentz Elementary Schools would be zoned. But several residents said polls and community surveys were inaccurate and unscientific.

Some residents accused others of a classic not-in-my-backyard mentality, accusing parents of voting to rezone neighborhoods other than their own. Other parents, like Sarah Gibson, attended board meetings saying they were concerned that schools with more vocal parents would succeed in their efforts and avoid rezoning.

While both Folsom high schools are among the top schools in the Sacramento region, many parents favor Vista del Lago, intentionally purchasing homes within its boundaries. They were not ready to give up on their plans to have their children attend the school.

Parents have school enrollment plans

Several parents and students came to board meetings with their own suggestions. Some said that new Folsom residents in Vista del Lago’s boundaries should instead be zoned for Folsom High, along with children moving into newly built developments and apartments, many of which include low-income housing. Others suggested the district expand the Vista del Lago campus by working with the city to share a future 19-acre park adjacent to the school. Some even thought the district should put hours of research aside and start the process over.

Folsom realtor and parent Cassandra Niklewski pointed out that three of the remaining feeder schools into Vista del Lago (Empire Oaks, Russell Ranch and Oak Chan elementary schools) are in neighborhoods with some of the highest priced homes and the highest incomes in Folsom. One of the options some parents wanted the district to consider would have rezoned new apartment complexes near East Bidwell Street away from Vista and into a Folsom High feeder school; Niklewski said that move would have further segregated the city based on socio-economic status.

“The chatter about which neighborhoods belong and don’t belong has already started,” Niklewski said at the November board meeting.

Board member Joshua Hoover said he received about 100 emails from families.

“If someone told me my son had to go to a different high school, I completely understand how frustrating that would be,” Hoover said in an interview. “This would be disrupting one or two neighborhoods in Folsom, but there is a real overcrowding problem at Vista.”

Folsom High has 2,500 students, but could enroll more than 3,000 students with portables. Vista del Lago has 1,800 students, but has the capacity for 1,700. Folsom High can enroll more students because, unlike Vista, it has space on campus for temporary classrooms.

But a small group of Folsom Hills Elementary parents who mobilized and combed through district data, researching alternative solutions, said Vista del Lago could make space for portables. The school could place the rooms on its over-sized baseball outfield, and share a baseball diamond and parking lot with the new city park next door, they said.

The district shot the idea down, saying that installing portables would mean more students at the school, which would impact other facilities such as bathrooms, locker rooms and the cafeteria.

Vista del Lago would also need more parking spaces — nearby streets filled with semi-custom made homes are dotted with No Parking signs — after residents complained to the city that students were parking in front of their homes.

But district officials said they were concerned that working out a shared parking lot deal with the city would require the district to pay for the plans. The district is currently dealing with a $5.5 million shortfall.

Some parents argue the rezoning effort is unnecessary, citing district data that shows enrollment in the high schools will stabilize in the next couple years.

Overcrowded Folsom campuses

Students at Vista dispute the notion that their school is overcrowded.

Aiden Larkin, 16, a junior at Vista, polled 120 classmates and presented his findings to the board.

Larkin said his survey showed that 97 percent of students said there were less than 36 students in their classes, and that while the district said the school was overcrowded in places like the cafeteria, “The majority of students sit outside.” The cafeteria, he said, has rows of empty seats.

“I think we are trying to solve a problem in a very disruptive way, when this problem may solve itself organically,” said school board member Hoover.

Hoover pointed out, like many families did, that the district’s data suggests that while Folsom will continue to be a popular city with more future residents moving in, the student population at Vista del Lago will decrease over the next three to five years.

Other parents said that while the district was concerned about the overcrowding at Vista del Lago, there seemed to be little concern about how overcrowded and potentially unsafe Folsom High would be if its enrollment reaches 3,000 students. Some parents said community members and district officials were being dismissive about Folsom High’s growing population.

“I haven’t seen any tangible examples of how shifting students from Vista to Folsom won’t cause the same problems at Folsom,” said Folsom parent Karen Lee. “I don’t think the district put the time and energy in looking at the negative impact this will cause Folsom High if boundaries are redrawn. If you speak to students at Folsom High, they will tell you it’s already difficult enough to get into classes they need.”

Folsom Cordova Unified plans to build five elementary schools, one middle school and one high school south of Highway 50, but Folsom High is expected to absorb students in the new housing development until then.

School board President JoAnne Reinking said the district will address the guidelines of how students can get into Vista del Lago at their next school board meeting, pointing out that as enrollment numbers stabilize, Blanche Sprentz Elementary students may one day be able to attend Vista.

“If I am around, I will be following along,” Reinking said.