The public school district for all of Pacifica except Fairmont West (which is part of Jefferson Elem SD) is Laguna Salada USD. There currently are eight K-5 or K-8 programs housed at seven sites. Sharp Park Traditional and the Alternative School are both housed at the Sharp Park School site, thus one more program than site.

LSUSD has two categories of programs: 1) neighborhood schools and 2) magnet schools. Registration procedures are different for the two categories.

Neighborhood schools: The neighborhood schools in Pacifica are: Fairmont, Westview, Sharp Park Traditional, Oddstad, and Linda Mar. In addition, Cabrillo is kind of a hybrid, but I'll discuss it under magnet schools. If you live near one of the neighborhood schools, and you enroll your child at that school during the enrollment period (I think thru March 97 for the 97-98 school year, but check with the district office or watch for Tribune notices to be sure), you are guaranteed a spot in that school for the coming school year. If you are not very close to one of those schools, check with the school or district office for the attendance area boundaries. FYI, residents of Fairway Park, Vallemar, and Rockaway Beach reside in Cabrillo's Attendance Area. Residents of Pedro Point are in Linda Mar's Attendance Area. All neighborhood schools are for grades kindergarten through 5th. All students from the neighborhood schools go on to Middle School (Ortega or Pacific Heights) for 6th - 8th grades.

Magnet Schools: In addition to the neighborhood schools, there are three magnet programs: The Alternative School, housed at Sharp Park, the structured program at Vallemar, and the "re-structured" program at Cabrillo.

The Alternative Class requires parent participation (something like 95 hours for one child), is characterized by lots of parents in the classrooms, many field trips, almost all classes are combination classes, and students do not get letter grades. There are about 210 - 220 students in the program. The program runs from kindergarten through 8th grade. It shares facilities with the Traditional program.

The structured program at Vallemar (usually just called Vallemar) is supposedly a "Back to Basics" school. It has a very supportive parent group that has funded a music program and an art program, beyond what the district provides. There are NO combination classes. At Vallemar, there are just under 500 students, with two classrooms each of kindergarten through 6th grade, and one classroom each of 7th & 8th grade. Students bring home progress reports about every three weeks (twice between every quarterly Report Card).

The restructured program at Cabrillo encourages, but does not require, parent participation in the classroom. It is being phased in, with grades K-3 part of the restructure during 96-97; in a couple years, all grades, K-5, will be restructured. This program is a bit of a hybrid, in that, of the 90 kindergartners who start each year, by decree, 60 are from inside the attendance area, and 30 are from other attendance areas in the district. Cabrillo is a K-5 school, with around 450-500 students. Students go to middle school for grades 6-8.

All magnet programs have these characteristics: Openings for kindergartners go first to siblings of currently enrolled students. All other openings are subject to lottery. The four lotteries (Alternative, Vallemar, Cabrillo inside, & Cabrillo outside) are held simultaneously in mid January. As of last year, if you wanted your child considered for a lottery, you are required to take a tour of the magnet program facilities you are considering. In the 1995/96 school year, tours were available October - January.

One big caveat: Every single year since 1991, the district has made changes in enrollment procedures. Sometimes huge changes (opening middle schools, closing a school, etc.), sometimes just minor tweaking. If you enroll your child, say, in Vallemar, in an effort to avoid middle school, there is no guarantee that the K-8 configuration will still be there 6 years from now. You should know that there is a Facilities Planning Committee that has been meeting for most of last school year, grappling with questions of configuration, and, specifically, recommendations for capitol improvements. Preliminary findings will go to the school board in the Fall of 1996, but don't expect a final report until sometime in 1997. Some ideas being considered include fewer operating sites and some possible combinations, such as the Alternative with the Restructured, or two programs at one middle school. Many options are under consideration.

It is suggested that you telephone the District Office, 738-6600, sometime after the first week of school (after Sept 8), and find out specifically about enrollment dates and requirements.

P.S. if your child turns 5 years old by the start of the second semester (probably the first week of February, 1997), she will be eligible for mid-year kindergarten.