The San Benito High School District can’t build a new high school soon enough. At the Aug. 9 district board meeting, representatives from Capitol Public Financing told the board that Hollister High School will be over capacity in the 2022-23 school year, with a projected enrollment of 3,550. The official capacity at Hollister High School is currently 3,437, as determined by the Office of Public School Construction for the state funding program. The financial group presented an updated version of the 2020 Facilities Master Plan showing the remaining facilities to be completed, as well as data found on student growth. Capitol Public Financing representative Cathy Dominico said the increase in student growth has validated the need for a second high school—and soon after, a third high school.
Dominico said the district’s student enrollment was 3,492 last year (3,423 enrolled at Hollister High School and 69 students at San Andreas High School) and is projected to have an enrollment of 3,858 students by the 2025-26 school year.
That would be “a really large high school, and not just from a facilities space perspective, but think about that from an educational perspective,” she said. “Think about that from a support services perspective. Even if we were to be able to move forward with funding this year, you will not have a new high school open in 2025-26.”
The enrollment increase, she said, is attributed to the housing developments built in the past 10 years. The average student generation rate in California is approximately 0.2 high school students per home. For homes built in 2009 and 2011, approximately 0.35 students per home were attending Hollister High School in 2020.
“Kids move through the grade levels—elementary and middle school—and then about 10 years later you start to see the high school kids come,” she said.
Approximately 40 housing developments are currently planned for the county, which Dominico said amounts to “about 3,800 housing units.”
“We may not be seeing all of the kids from houses that were built in 2017, 2018,” she said of student enrollment. “They may still be yet to come.”
“I feel like you’re telling us that we should already have shovels in the ground for the second high school and that we should be planning a third high school,” said Board President John Corrigan.
Dominico said that while a third high school is not in the updated master plan, the need for additional housing within the state “is going to push even more housing into this community than we’re even seeing in these numbers. That’s what’s going to really drive a third high school is this future development.”
Superintendent Shawn Tennenbaum added that as the district is planning for a second high school, they will also be planning for a third one.
Dominico said funding for a third high school is currently being set up while the district focuses on educational and support services at Hollister High School until a second high school can be built.
“We know we’ve got a challenge,” Tennenbaum told the board. “With 4,000 students, we would be considered the largest high school in Northern California.”
Tennenbaum said Hollister High School will not only need to evaluate educational programs and services for students but also parking, traffic and nutritional services. The number of athletic teams and clubs would need to be limited and double lunch periods would be a possibility.
“This is the reality. The other reality that we’re going to need to explore from an educational standpoint is year-round school—kids starting on different tracks. These are the things that this community is going to have to grapple with because of the amount of homes that were built all at once.”
According to the updated 2020 Facilities Master Plan, the district will seek increased funding from new developments. In addition, the district will need community support for a general obligation bond to fund a portion of the shortfall,
“All of this information has been shared with the city and the county,” Tennenbaum said. “This isn’t new information. We’re presenting to the folks that are actually going through the approval process and the planning agencies so that we can share with them this conundrum. This is a community issue for one high school district. We’re really trying to bring attention to that to all levels in the community.”
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