August 12, 1999

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (David Smollar) RECORD ENROLLMENT EXPECTED FOR SAN DIEGO CITY SCHOOLS A record enrollment of nearly 141,000 students is expected for the San Diego City Schools when the 1999-2000 year begins Sept. 7, an estimated increase of almost 2,300 from September 1998. The first day will be a full day of instruction. The greatest number of students are forecast for the first grade, followed by kindergarten. All grades kindergarten-through-third will show enrollments of more than 12,000 students each. An estimated 6,300 students will enter the twelfth grade on their final leg to graduation in June 2000. The district will open one new school, Garfield Elementary, at 4487 Street in Normal Heights. The school will alleviate the crush of students in the University Heights and North Park areas which forced the district to bus pupils during the past four years to schools outside the neighborhoods. The facility will open with an estimated 450 students and was remodeled into a K-6 school from the former Garfield High, which moved last year to downtown across from San Diego City College. The district has 177 schools. The Board of Education and Superintendent of Public Education Alan Bersin look to continue the strong pace of instructional reforms begun last year. "We made a lot of progress during the past year but we still have a long, long path ahead of us to maintain and build on our first improvements," Bersin said. Notable for the district as it begins the1999-2000 year are: The second year of the Literacy Framework, a sustained effort to improve reading and writing skills of all students. The framework began last year with three-hour daily instructional blocks in every K-6 class to improve student literacy. This year, the framework will be extended with two-hour daily instructional blocs at grades 7 and 9 for all students whose reading skills fall below grade level. Initiation of peer coaching/staff developers with 71 specially-trained teachers who will help their colleagues in 115 schools with sustained, professional assistance in implementing the Literacy Framework better for students. A welcome to some 700 teachers hired to meet enrollment increases and replace those who retired in June. The district has about 7,000 teachers.  Planning and design for the Math Framework, a major effort to parallel improvements in literacy with comprehensive instructional techniques and staff development in math, to take effect in 2000-2001. A new phase of the San Diego READS campaign, a joint effort of the district and community to put large numbers of new books into classroom and school libraries. Bersin anticipates that San Diego READS will serve as a strong example for other school-community partnerships that the district will establish in the future to support improved student achievement.