Following approximately three years of discussion, the San Mateo-Foster City School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to purchase a fourth elementary school in the Charter Square Shopping Center in Foster City on Thursday, Nov. 3. The new elementary school is part of Foster City’s Measure X, a ballot issue intended to solve the school district’s overcrowding problem.
The projected site demolition date to clear space for the new school is December 2017. Construction of the school is expected to begin in January 2018, while the school’s completion is predicted to be around February 2019. However, many of the dates are tentative as district approvals may take longer than expected.
The measure approves a $148 million bond to fund the new Foster City school campus, and the construction of new gyms and classrooms at Abbott and Borel Middle Schools, and a new gym at Bayside STEM Academy. The fourth elementary school will have all the facilities and support buildings common to many other schools in the school district.
Many factors contributed to the conception of the new school, but the most important was an overflow of students. The capacity of a typical Foster City elementary school is estimated to be around 300 students. Now, each of the three elementary schools holds, on average, 750 students.
SMFCSD Superintendent Joan Rosas says, “We have experienced increasing enrollment in the school district, especially here in Foster City. The elementary schools in Foster City are all impacted. They are full enough with students that there is no additional room available for art or music or science labs. We have come to a place where we need additional space to put all of the kids in classes.”
The influx of students may be caused by the recent increase in the development of Foster City real estate, a sign that more people are moving into the city.
Freshman Brianna Huang thinks this growth is the reason behind the fourth elementary school. She says, “There is a new school because there are too many people in Foster City. You know that place next to the recreation center? They are building new housing places and apartments there. I feel like it’s such a nice place and there are so many people moving in, so they are building the school to accommodate them.”
This new school might also affect students at Aragon, although the change will be small. Lee thinks that there may be no change at all. He says, “It is just an elementary school, it’s not going to affect anyone here at Aragon.”
Huang says, “There will be more people around the city but it won’t really affect students at Aragon. We might see more students come in than last year because of the increase of people in Foster City.” She thinks there will be a hike in the Aragon enrollment numbers following the years after the new elementary school’s completion.
According to Rosas, however, it is unlikely that enrollment numbers will increase due to the new elementary school. Rosas says, “I don’t think it would affect high school students because if you were living as an elementary school student you would go to one of three schools but now it’s just one of four, you would still go to Bowditch, and then go on to your high school. I don’t perceive it making a difference in the high schools though.”
An increase in enrollment numbers may not be caused by the school, but the steadily increasing population of Foster City. SMFCSD Director of Facilities Joel Cadiz thinks that although Foster City schools are a feeder to the high school district, the reason behind more enrollment would be the new apartments. “We are the largest school district in San Mateo County, and we are a feeder to the high school district, so the high schools will have most of our kids. You see a lot of condos and new apartments around Foster City and lots of families are going to move in there, and eventually they will make their way into the high schools,” he says.
What the new school would bring, however, is relief to the overcrowding of other three elementary schools. “If we plan it correctly, it would allow us to have additional space for elementary school students throughout Foster City and would then relieve some overcrowding in the other three schools,” says Rosas.
