Middle schoolers being relocated to address overcrowding

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Faced with school sites that are near capacity and student enrollment projected to grow by 838 over the next four years, Hollister School District has relocated some student grades and specialized programs to other sites and approved new classroom construction.

The board’s recent actions include moving Hollister Prep middle school grades to Marguerite Maze Middle School and Ladd Lane middle school grades to Rancho San Justo Middle School, as well as moving about a third of Rancho Santana rising sixth graders to Rancho San Justo. 

According to the California Department of Education, 71 middle school students attended Ladd Lane and 184 attended Hollister Prep for the 2025-26 school year.

At the April 28 Board of Trustees meeting, Maze teachers and Hollister Elementary School Teacher Association members questioned why the district decided to move Hollister Prep students in a process teachers felt was done “without sufficient discussion or engagement with key stakeholders, including community members, site employees and parents.”

The teachers said they attended a town hall on short notice, expecting the district to engage with community members about the potential move of Hollister Prep students to Maze, but felt that the district had already made the decision, despite concerns from teachers and parents.

Trustee Jan Grist said the 90-minute town hall was intended to listen to the community.

“But it doesn’t mean that we have to change our mind,” she said.

The district projects that of the 838 projected new students by the 2030-31 school year, 549 will be in TK through fifth grade and 289 will be in sixth through eighth grade. 

In addition to the reconfigurations, Hollister School District Superintendent Erika Sanchez told BenitoLink the Board of Trustees approved at its May 12 special meeting the construction of three classrooms at Calaveras School and the Accelerated Achievement Academy, which share a campus, as well as two classrooms at Sunnyslope Elementary and two at Ladd Lane.

The district also sent a third of its fifth graders to Maze following a lottery. 

While the district records its regular monthly board meetings, it does not record special meetings. 

At the April 28 regular meeting, Sanchez said the state did not provide sufficient funding for school facilities and that in order to build a new school the district would require a bond. She noted the community opposed San Benito High School’s 2024 bond measures L and M intended to build a new high school. The measures required 55% of the votes to pass.

She added the district is working on its facilities master plan for the short and long term and analyzing how to use its available space efficiently. Sanchez mentioned possibly increasing enrollment capacity at school sites or making further adjustments to grade level configurations.

The board also approved a feasibility study for new classroom construction at Cerra Vista for the Expanded Learning Opportunity Program (ELOP). 

Also at the April 28 meeting, Sanchez said about two years ago the district determined the ELOP program had sufficient funding to construct new classrooms at Sunnyslope, Calaveras, the Accelerated Achievement Academy and Ladd Lane.

She said she was bringing up this idea to the board because the district was having a “slight boost in the ELOP fund.”

Hollister School District Director of Facilities Aaron Buzzetta said at the May 26 meeting that he hoped to have more information on the feasibility study at the June board meeting as well as proposals for construction of the seven classrooms. 

It’s not the first time the district has changed grade configurations at its school sites. For the 2024-25 school year, the board approved Sunnyslope and Cerra Vista to host TK through fifth grade students only.

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