[quote=propertysearchaddiction]About the high school…I think there are a lot of people HOPING the High School will continue to improve as the kids scoring well from elementary and middle school feed into SMHS…or that they will eventually build a new one. So it is a bit of a risk for H.S. but I know plenty of kids doing just fine there.[/quote]

It’s all about what feeds into what.

SMHS is fed from schools in San Elijo Hills, Discovery Hills, parts of Carlsbad … all brand new subdivisions filled with educated high earners (some of them may have overextended, but there are no welfare recipients in San Elijo Hills).

But it’s also fed from a couple of schools in a Mexican barrio north of San Marcos Boulevard. Such as Alvin Dunn Elementary, which is 85% hispanic with 76% free lunches.

South San Marcos growth got to the point where well-off kids from San Elijo and Discovery actually outnumber barrio kids. As of last year, San Elijo Middle School (3 grades, without the barrio) was almost as big as San Marcos High (4 grades, with the barrio). Which leads me to believe that there’s still a substantial number of parents from San Elijo that choose not to send their high-schoolers to SMHS, but this number is lower every year. As API scores keep improving, that will further shift the balance.

And, with some simple boundary changes to ship some barrio kids elsewhere on top of that, SMHS could eventually match its Carlsbad rivals.