Monta Vista and Homestead, Strong and Steady
Updated: 24 hours ago
If you have a teenager in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Los Altos or West San Jose, you may have heard that our high schools have fewer students than they used to. Some neighbors worry about what that means for their school.
Here is the short answer. FUHSD saw this trend coming years ago, measured it carefully, and acted early. The latest numbers are better than many people expected. And all five of our high schools, including Monta Vista and Homestead, remain strong.
The numbers, in plain terms
FUHSD's high schools went from about 11,000 students in 2017 to just under 9,000 this fall. Lower birth rates and the high cost of housing mean fewer families with teenagers in our area, and school districts across the Bay Area have felt it.
The good news: the steep part of the decline is behind us. The newest forecast shows enrollment leveling off near 9,000 through 2029-30. Just a year earlier, the forecast had predicted a drop to about 7,800. This fall's count, 8,993 students, is 180 fewer than last year. That is a modest step, in line with the leveling-off trend, and about 500 students more than the older forecast expected for this year.
What changed? More students from our feeder middle schools are moving on into FUHSD than in past years, and some neighborhoods, especially around Fremont High, are adding students again.
Getting the forecast right
Good decisions start with good numbers. Since 2005, FUHSD has worked with an independent demographer, Tom Williams of Enrollment Projection Consultants. He studies birth rates, housing costs, families moving in and out, and every new housing project expected to open in the next five years. He does this neighborhood by neighborhood, for each school's attendance area.
Each year, district staff present the new forecast to the Board of Trustees in a public meeting. The forecast shapes hiring, course offerings, budgets and building plans.
The track record is strong. In February 2025, the forecast said our five high schools would enroll about 9,172 students in fall 2025. The actual count was 9,166, a difference of just 6 students. This fall, the count came in 124 students below the latest projection, a gap of about 1 percent. When Superintendent Graham Clark reported it to the board in September, he said no significant staffing changes are expected.
When a forecast misses, the district says so openly and explains why. In 2023, enrollment came in higher than predicted. Staff showed the board the two reasons: a nearby charter school closed and sent 116 students to FUHSD, and families returned to public schools after the pandemic. That kind of honest review is how forecasts get better.
Solving it carefully, with the community
FUHSD did not wait for a crisis. In 2016 the district formed a Citizens Advisory Committee on Enrollment. Parents and residents from all five school areas, students, teachers and principals study the data together, guided by an independent facilitator. Their recommendations go to the board in public.
That work produced two transfer programs that keep our schools balanced:
Lynbrook program (since 2017): eighth graders from Miller, McAuliffe and the Hyde area can choose Lynbrook. About 278 extra students now attend Lynbrook because of it.
Monta Vista program (since 2023): eighth graders in the Homestead area can choose Monta Vista. Interest grows every year, from 13 transfers in the first year to 17, then 21.
The programs work. Based on where students live, the gap between our largest and smallest school is 869 students. Based on where they actually attend, the gap is 610.
The district also protects students and teachers as it adjusts. Changes are made gradually, so no student's four-year plan is disrupted. Some teachers now teach at two campuses, which keeps a wide range of courses available while keeping our experienced teachers in the district.
Closing a school is not on the table. When the committee was reconvened in 2022, the district stated that school closure would not be among the options. In 2025, Superintendent Graham Clark said FUHSD has plenty of students to operate its schools for the foreseeable future.
Monta Vista and Homestead: strong and steady
Monta Vista felt the decline earlier than most, as housing costs rose in its neighborhoods. FUHSD responded with the Monta Vista transfer program, and the trend has leveled off. Monta Vista enrolls about 1,570 students today, and the latest forecast keeps it near 1,590 through 2029-30. Applications to the transfer program reached a record in 2025, a sign that families see what Monta Vista offers. The district is also investing in the campus, including a modernization of its Black Box theater building.
Homestead is the largest high school in FUHSD, with about 2,180 students in fall 2025. The forecast shows it gradually getting smaller, to about 1,870 by 2029-30, which would still make it our second-largest school. There is good news in the details: in the Homestead area, each new ninth-grade class has been larger than the eighth-grade class the year before, by a growing margin each year. Homestead's size is also what allows it to share students with Monta Vista through the transfer program, so both schools stay healthy.
Across the district, the picture is balanced. Fremont High is now projected to grow, and Cupertino and Lynbrook hold steady at around 1,600 to 1,650 students.
Rosa Kim's role
Rosa Kim has served on the FUHSD Board of Trustees since 2018. She has been part of each step in this work: the creation of the Monta Vista program in 2022, and its extension, along with the Lynbrook program, in 2023, the year she served as Board President.
On December 9, 2025, Rosa seconded the motion to extend both the Lynbrook and Monta Vista transfer programs for two more years, through 2027-28. The board approved it unanimously. That vote gives families in the Homestead, Cupertino and Monta Vista areas certainty as they plan for high school.
Rosa's approach is the one this issue needs: start with accurate data, listen to parents, students and teachers, and make steady decisions that protect every school.
Five schools, one strong district
Enrollment changes are real, and FUHSD is facing them head-on. The district has accurate forecasts, a community committee that studies the options, transfer programs that work, and a clear commitment to keep all five high schools strong. Monta Vista and Homestead are no exception.
This is steady, careful work, and it needs steady leadership. Rosa Kim has been part of it from the start, and she will keep putting every student and every school first.
Re-elect Rosa Kim for FUHSD Trustee Area 3 on November 3, 2026.
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