With a new school year underway, both Cupertino districts are taking a hard look at future enrollment.

Superintendents from the Fremont Union High School District and Cupertino Union School District have expressed concerns about shrinking enrollment numbers projected for the next five years.

“We are looking at a decline in enrollment,” said Wendy Gudalewicz, Cupertino Union superintendent. “What’s happening in this district is we have very large classes; sixth, seventh and eighth [grade] are much larger than kinder [classes] now and future kinder. We’re looking at a bubble of students going out.”

She said there is a projected drop of nearly 1,000 students from the current district population over the next five years.

Gudalewicz added that the decline in enrollment could be attributed to a few different factors, including low birth rates during the recession beginning in 2007 and rising housing costs that are pricing young couples out of the area.

“Traditionally, we defy those odds because we have so many people that want to be a part of this district,” Gudalewicz said. “High cost of living is affecting our families. We’ve heard from families that in certain [areas] we have more rental properties and that they’re being priced out and having to leave.”

Gudalewicz said the decline in enrollment will pose several issues for the district.

“For us the difference between us and the high school districts is that we are resourced through our average daily attendance and number of students we have,” she said. “When the enrollment goes down, the resources go down, [meaning] not as many teachers and so forth. It impacts overall funding.”

Gudalewicz said the most significant decline is occurring in the southern parts of the district’s attendance boundaries.

Meanwhile, the high school district is dealing with a decline in enrollment at Lynbrook High School in West San Jose. Last fall, the district held several community meetings on the topic and discussed shifting a Cupertino High attendance boundary to Lynbrook. That discussion is continuing.

“Fewer kids means fewer classes, fewer class choices,” superintendent Polly Bove said at a state of the district speech at a Cupertino Rotary meeting in July. “We want Lynbrook to stay whole and have all the electives that all our other schools do, so we formed a district-wide community advisory committee.”

The committee last met Aug. 3 and members discussed different enrollment options like area of choice, open enrollment, boundary changes, program location or relocation, and intra-district transfers.

Sue Larson, district spokesperson, said the committee is composed of parents, residents, staff and students from the district attendance area. Group information will be presented to the district board of trustees to take into consideration for future policy decisions.

Gudalewicz said her district is also working on how to best deal with its declining enrollment numbers.

“There’s a couple things you want to avoid in a school district without fail: closing schools and boundary changes,” she said. “Our goal over the next five years is to do everything possible if necessary to avoid those two. We’ll work with our community on that.”

To view Cupertino Union’s 2015-16 demographic’s enrollment report, visit bit.ly/CUSDinfo.