School sees unexpected influx in freshman enrollment

Graphic by Amy Miao

After a long period of declining enrollment, SHS has finally seen an increase in freshman class size this year.

If it has seemed like there are a lot more young-looking faces on campus this fall, you’re right. This year’s freshman class is larger than in recent years, shattering trends of decreasing student enrollment since 2016. 

The enrollment for the Class of 2024 was 294 freshmen and for the Class of 2025 was 285. The Class of 2027 has 305 students — nearly 30 more students than the Class of 2026, which only has 279. 

According to guidance counselor Brian Safine, the main reason behind the surprising spike in freshman class size is a larger than usual number of students coming in from overseas and private schools. School registrar Robert Wise theorizes that the main reasons behind past years’ decline in enrollment are a stagnant overall city population and the increasing median age in Saratoga, where the average house costs roughly $3.6 million according to Zillow and young families struggle to afford housing.

Compared to neighboring cities like San Jose, whose population increased from 800,000 to almost 1 million people in the last 30 years, Saratoga, with a population of 28,473, has remained roughly the same population, which contributes to declining enrollment.

Additionally, due to Saratoga’s higher than average age, with a median of around 50 compared to the next highest median age of about 40 in Cupertino, there is a higher concentration of older residents. This also means there are fewer younger families with children attending Saratoga public schools. 

Safine notes there are many possible factors that influence a school’s enrollment numbers, including enrollment from overseas, neighboring districts and students transferring from Los Gatos High. 

“One thing that attracts me to Saratoga is the community,” freshman Ethan Tian, who previously attended Stratford Middle School, said. “It’s competitive and everyone here is hardworking.” 

  However, there is still a level of variability to future class sizes, and Safine emphasizes that it remains difficult to estimate freshman class size and transfer enrollment rates.

“Projecting enrollment is tricky because it’s not always a straight line. Just because Redwood had 250 graduates does not mean that Saratoga will have exactly 250 ninth graders,” Safine said. “We may gain and lose students from out of state, out of country, out of district and private schools.”

An increase in enrollment can be a double-edged sword, Safine said. While a larger student body does mean increased participation in programs and clubs like band and robotics, it also results in greater demands for increases in staffing and sometimes larger classes.

English 9 MAP teacher Suzanne Herzman has experienced firsthand the effects of the unexpected increase in freshman class size. While the district made a commitment to keep freshman English class sizes low in 2008, Herzman has seen this policy has been slowly eroding over the years.

After teaching in Singapore last year, Herzman returned to an unprecedented 32 person average class size in her English 9 MAP classes. Due to this, she has faced challenges such as creating small groups for various group projects. As such, Herzman reiterates her stance that the district should aim to provide smaller student to teacher ratios in classrooms if possible in order to provide the best learning environments possible.

“It’s really hard to conduct certain in-class activities with over 30 students, especially for such an interactive class like English,” Herzman said. “Overall, I don’t know that it’s best for freshman students to be at full capacity in those English classes.”