By Lucas Shaw,
Staff Writer.
One day before school started, counselor Ellie Orozco lost her position due to a serious decline in student enrollment. At this time last year, a hundred more students were on campus than now. Many questions are left unanswered.
Counselor Kris Bertsch has been counseling within Santa Rosa City Schools since 1995. Therefore, Bertsch has seen Santa Rosa High School change throughout the years. “We had a threat of declining enrollment when they opened Maria Carrillo; they told us that we would drop down to 900 students. We went out into the community, figured it out and never fell below 1600,” Bertsch said.
While some say that declining enrollment can be bad, others claim it can be good. Less students may give more opportunities for students’ connections with their teachers. On the other hand, with a loss of students comes the loss of programs, extracurricular activities and personnel. These losses can be impactful, especially when those lost are programs and people that support students through the difficulties of high school. Principal Dr. Mark Ryan explained, “It’s really a double edged sword, or a double sided coin. . . there is a sweet spot.”
It is uncertain where Santa Rosa High lies on this scale, and that is because the effects of declining enrollment can only truly be seen over time. Orozco lost her position due to a sustained loss of students over the course of the past four years. “There really has been a decline since COVID and a couple of things are happening right now because of that. Families are choosing alternative education styles,” Bertsch said. “We aren’t down a whole lot, but if it’s say 50 students every year for the past five years, that’s 250 kids.”
Over the course of these four years, the cost of living for families in Santa Rosa has become unreasonable, and threats of school safety have been on the minds of many parents. As a handful of the student population is lost each year due to these concerning issues, SRHS has many more changes in store.
