Ceres Unified School District is keeping a watchful eye on an overall decline in student enrollment – a trend seen throughout the state as families leave California to escape the high cost of living. CUSD Supt. Denise Wickham touched on that trend and gave an update on capital projects during an exchange of information between the School Board the Ceres City Council last week.

City officials also shared current issues as the two elected bodies met Thursday evening inside the Argus/Endeavor High School multi-purpose room for a rare joint meeting.

Wickham shared that during the 2019-20 CUSD had 924 kindergartners and now has 845. The decline started about four years ago. 

“That’s about a hundred students fewer per cohort going through our system right now,” said Wickham.

The district projects to have 436 fewer students by the year 2023-24 “and that is a substantial number of students for us so we are in the process right now of what we’re calling right-sizing the district, which means we’re not hiring as many people, we’re not hiring as many teachers. When a teacher retires we may not replace that teacher. When an assistant principal moves on or becomes promoted … we may not be replacing all of these individuals like we have before.”

Actual enrollment (excluding preschool) at Ceres’ 21 schools is 12,908 students. Despite the decrease in younger grades, the number should stay close to 12,900 for the 2023-24 school year, offset by a bubble in junior and senior high students.

“So overall enrollment is pretty flat because our numbers at junior high and high school are a little elevated so those bubbles of students that are going through are helping to offset the decline in elementary. So for right now that’s a good thing because it keeps us right size. However, we’ve got to be looking forward on the horizon on if this bubble continues to go through, what are we going to do?”

Enrollment could be bolstered locally if a number of residential projects come to fruition. Christopher Hoem, the city of Ceres Community Development Director, shared about residential developments taking place that will impact the school system. The biggest expected to begin later this year is Whitmore Ranch near Cesar Chavez Jr. High and La Rosa Elementary schools. Two subdivision maps have been approved. The first, approved in May 2021 subdivides 19.3 acres into 107 residential lots. The second was approved to subdivide 8.4 acres into 46 residential lots just east of Moore Road and 650 feet south of Whitmore Avenue.

On Hatch Road 18 units are being constructed in the Olive Villas project and the 40-home Tuscany Village single-family residential project is wrapping up on Whitmore Avenue west of Highway 99.

Hoem explained that Copper Trails could be developing south of Service Road west of Central Avenue in coming years – if the area is annexed to the city of Ceres.

“If the master plan and EIR is approved as a project and it is annexed then we could see significant growth for the city,” said Hoem. “So we’re talking about thousands of new residents and some new regional commercial zoning near the highway.”

He told the panels: “We’re a growing city and we like it and we’re trying our best to address the housing crisis and find businesses that are interested in locating in our city.”

Wickham also touched on how CUSD has been impacted financially with increased student absenteeism following the pandemic since schools are paid on Average Daily Attendance (ADA). She noted the current projected ADA of 12,401 is “pretty low” – something districts statewide are experiencing.

“The ADA is what’s really going to hurt us in the future if we don’t figure out what’s going on,” said Wickham. 

Before the pandemic, about 95 to 96 percent of students showed up for class. Since COVID, about 92 percent show up.

“Students, for whatever reason, are staying home more often, whether they’re sick or not feeling well or because they can easily access their material online or for whatever reason, we’re still trying to figure that out.”

The district is offering incentives for showing up and has reinstituted its SARB (Student Attendance Review Board) process for habitually truant students.

Wickham said it’s clear to educators that students do better in school if they show up in class every day.

According to data on CUSD’s dashboard, chronic absenteeism is “very high” but she noted a “very high” graduation rate. That may be owing to the fact, she said, that policies were modified to lower the required amount of credits to graduate because of COVID. Returning to pre-COVID requirements could mean “graduation rates may be in flux.”

With adult education and special education students, CUSD currently has 13,606 enrolled.

Dr. Wickham shared about the district’s major construction projects on school campuses. The modernization of Ceres High School’s small gym and theater is complete and progress continues on the Central Valley High School aquatics center. Construction of the Ric Campero Performing Arts Center, also at CVHS, is about eight months behind schedule for a late delivery of steel due to supply chain issues.

“We have entered into plans for an architect to finish the drawings for the completion of the football stadium at Central Valley (High School). That’s a big deal for us.”

New sound systems and scoreboards are also being planned.

Bids are being sought for all-weather tracks and turf at both Ceres and CV high schools.

CUSD is also pushing initiatives for Career Technical Education and Career Readiness, to prepare students for livable wages in the Valley.

“That may involve college, it may involve other technical schools but we’re really looking into that.”

Wickham also noted that CUSD is considering a bond campaign in 2024 for big capital projects.

“You might think, oh, all our schools are new and they’re shiny and wonderful. We have schools in our district that are over 30 years old that haven’t received any modernization. We have wings of portables that are wearing out so we do have millions and millions of dollars that we could put into our schools to continue to keep them in a state that our families expect and should have.”

Wickham praised the Ceres Police Department for its partnership with the district participating in training with the Department of Homeland Security.

Ceres Unified pays the salaries of four School Resource Officers to be on campus. They are Gloria Blakeslee, Kevin Sakasegawa, Kao Saechao and Lorenzo Beltran. With Beltran exiting the program, CUSD will have the final say on his replacement. Ceres Police Sgt. Dirk Nieuwenhuis is now in charge of the School Resource Officer program, taking over for Keith Griebel.

The officers went along on site tours with a consultant with the Department of Homeland Security to identify ways to increase school safety. The SROs also made recommendations to the federal government for best practices.

Resulting from an active shooter drill at Mae Hensley Jr. High and an elementary school last summer, the police drone team suggested that CUSD number the roofs of each building to be viewed from the sky.

“It makes a huge advantage if we can direct people and we know what the numbers or the letters of the buildings are on top of the roofs,” Chief Collins said. “It just makes getting in and directing public safety officials – EMS, fire, into those buildings more quickly.”

CUSD is already talking to the city about letter size and placement.

Ceres Chief of Police Rick Collins introduced Captain Chris Perry, the number 2 in charge, to CUSD officials.

A new program, the Youth Advisory Council, has 45 high school students who meet several times a year to discuss policies and open dialogue with CUSD officials.

“We talked to them about multiple issues, including like tardies, like how they thought we should handle school tardies,” said Wickham. “They always have really interesting perspectives.”

The group will be providing input to Ceres Recreation Division to see what kinds of programs they want to see offered during the school year and summer.

Wickham shared that CUSD is the largest employer in Ceres with over 3,500 employees.

• 81 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunches.

• 80 percent of students are Hispanic; while 11 percent are white students.

• Nine sites have preschool programs;

• CUSD has two dual immersion programs;

• CUSD has an overall budget of $280 million, of which 87 percent is spent for staff pay, salaries and benefits.

Hoem said he and Dan Pangrazio, CUSD’s Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services, have met recently at Lucas Elementary, Cesar Chavez Jr. High, La Rosa Elementary and Central Valley High School to see what can be done to improve traffic flow and safety.

“We’ve got some ideas that we want to work on and continue to refine so I think the future looks bright there,” said Hoem.

Pangrazio said the district’s concerns about traffic resulting from the mandated change in school start times caused changes to placement of crossing guards. City officials also helped retime traffic lights to help deal with parental traffic.

One area being looked at is preventing illegal and unsafe U-turns in front of Central Valley High School on Central Avenue, possibly by adding medians or barriers. A similar median was added on Whitmore Avenue in front of Cesar Chavez Jr. High to prevent a similar problem. Such project would probably need to be funded by Safe Routes to Schools grant funding.

There are also concerns about traffic at Patricia Kay Beaver School into the rural area of Central Avenue. The county is considering potential solutions through grant funding.

City Manager Alex Terrazas addressed a question about the status of the vacant Walmart building on Hatch Road. He said the city remains in continual contact with a commercial broker and Walmart itself and a retail recruitment firm to seek potential tenants.

City Finance Director Leticia Dias gave a brief overview of the city’s 2022-23 budget, starting the year with a General Fund balance of $6.8 million. Revenues are estimated to be $27.1 million, including $930,000 in ARPA funds to balance the budget. Expenditures are expected to total $27.2 million and end the year with $6.7 million in the General Fund, or 24.8 percent in reserves.

She said the city is realizing an increase in sales tax revenue, largely due to the increase cost of goods. The city is also expecting an increase in sales tax from the new businesses in the Ceres Gateway Center.

Wickham shared that CUSD expects to hold onto a 9 percent reserve at the end of the school year.

Both city and school district had praise for the mutual shared use of facilities, whether it’s the city using the high school pool or the district using the Community Center for events.