San Mateo Foster City School District Enrollment

Audubon ~ Bowditch ~ Brewer Island ~ Foster City

It's no secret that great schools help attract new families to neighborhoods. The result has been a dramatic increase in student enrollment in Foster City and our neighboring community of San Mateo. The typical elementary school in our area was built for 300 students. Now, many of our schools serve more than 500 students. The San Mateo-Foster City School District explored alternatives for providing school classrooms, auxiliary spaces and infrastructure for the additional students. The school district created a student Enrollment Management Plan (EMP) through community collaboration, careful study and planning. To learn more about the Enrollment Management Plan, please visit the Superintendent's Page on the District's website.

The Superintendent's Committee on Overcrowding RElief (SCORE), through a public process, determined the best solution to alleviate overcrowding in Foster City schools would be to reconfigure and rebuild Bowditch Middle School to accommodate more students. Also included in the EMP is a solution to address overcrowding in San Mateo: modernize and reopen Knolls Elementary School, which is currently not in use.

Implementation of the EMP was in jeopardy when Measure P failed in November 2013, but the School District Superintendent put together a "Next Steps Committee" to engage the communities of the San Mateo-Foster City School District.  Based upon the further work of the Next Step Committee, Measure X was passed by the voters in November 2015.

The City does not have legal authority to build or operate schools. However, because the issues that affect schools are closely related to issues that affect the City, its businesses and its residents, the City is committed to working with the School District to resolve the issue of increasing school enrollment in a way that benefits the entire community.