Due to the nature of the San Mateo Union High School District’s funding, Aragon maintains a strict policy on admitting students who live outside the district. Numerous students are turned away because their actual residency is not situated within the district. Though district policy may seem overly fastidious on the surface, the district has strong reason to enforce it.
Aragon is known for its academics, and parents often register their children at Aragon in an attempt to get them into a better education system. Furthermore, with the largest population of the SMUHSD schools, Aragon already rejects many inter-district transfers each year. However, many go to great lengths to attend Aragon, but due to the district’s checking system, these people are caught and their children are not allowed to attend.
The primary reason why Aragon does not allow students in from outside the district is due to the nature of the Basic Aid funding that Aragon receives. Essentially, the vast majority of Aragon’s funding comes from property taxes.
Basic Aid districts generally consist of “better-off” districts, like Palo Alto, Woodside, Montecito, and Sausalito. However, the range of the income from property tax revenue ranges from less than $100 to thousands per student, depending on the school district.
In recent years, though, property tax fluctuations from the housing market have been difficult for Basic Aid districts such as SMUHSD. Students from outside the district are not included in the property tax revenue and are getting a “free ride.” Therefore, by admitting only students within the district, schools are allowed to spend more money per child. Conversely, some schools receive funding based on the number of students attending and are less impacted by having more students.
The San Mateo Union High School District uses a system called InfoSnap which helps the Attendance and Welfare office verify residency. Initially, parents are required to provide proof of residency documents to the Attendance and Welfare office. Only if residency is verified will the parent receive a “SNAP CODE” which allows access to the on-line enrollment form.
Some students, however, have found ways around the checking system. One anonymous student said that she did live in San Mateo, but after her parents divorced, she moved with her mother to San Francisco. Since she does not live with her father, she technically cannot attend Aragon. However, her mother put down on the school registration form that the student lived with her father in San Mateo. Since her father’s address is within the district, the Attendance and Welfare Office permits the student to attend Aragon.
“The commute is tough; I have to wake up super early to get to school on time. Plus, since the weather is so different I often dress too warmly for school,” she says. Additionally, since the student’s mother works in the area, “I don’t make it home until almost 10 o’clock some days, and so I keep my textbooks in the car so I can do homework in the office of my mother’s work.” However, the student does not want to transfer, since she already transferred schools from her freshman to sophomore year. “If I transferred schools three times, it would make applying to college crazy.” Additionally, the student’s friends all go to Aragon.
Megan Yip, a junior, has also faced a similar situation. Her family sold their house in San Mateo and moved to the city because they had a house there. They used their uncle’s address so Megan could still go to school at Aragon.
“The district started to send people to my uncle’s house to see if I was there,” Megan says. “They did it like twice and even had someone ask to come inside and see if we were there. We put old clothes and left them in his house as proof.”
However, after a couple of months after her family had moved, “the district sent us a notice telling me that I couldn’t go to school because they determined that I didn’t live in San Mateo,” states Megan. Despite her mother’s claims that Megan lived there, Megan was denied from attending Aragon. “My mom decided to rent an apartment in Foster City,” explained Megan, “since the district guaranteed that I would get a transfer back to Aragon if I moved to Foster City.”
Megan’s mother wanted her to stay at Aragon partly because of academics, but also because of friendships she has. “I’ve lived in San Mateo since I was four,” Megan elaborated, “so my mom didn’t really want me to leave.”
Despite the apparent negativity of cracking down on students from outside the district, the result is benefits to current students. A slight funding per student may seem minimal, but the regulations put in place by the Attendance and Welfare office are maintaining proportional levels of student funding.
