The Sacramento Bee, January 26, 1989
PANEL REJECTS PLAN TO CLOSE ENCINA HIGH
By Jim Sanders, Bee Staff Writer
   Parents, teachers and students at Encina High School can breathe a
little easier after a task force voted Wednesday to quit considering
closure of the school as a way to save the district money. The San Juan
Unified School District's housing task force voted 19-0 to
abandon the idea after Napoleon B. Triplett, Encina principal, argued
the proposal was casting a cloud over enrollment.
   "Something's going on at that school that's good," Triplett said.
"If you  don't do something to preserve it, you've got a
self-fulfilling prophecy."
   Initially, the proposal to shut Encina was prompted by declining
enrollment, but the proposal itself threatened to reduce the student
body dramatically, Triplett said. Under a San Juan policy, students can
apply to any high school they desire beginning in late February. Students
would ignore Encina if its future is uncertain, Triplett said.
   The school, on Bell Street near Arden Way, has performed well in state
12th-grade achievement tests, last year outscoring 78 percent of
California's high schools in reading and 57 percent in mathematics.
More than two of every three graduating seniors at Encina enrolled in a
university, state college or community college in 1986, the most recent year
such statistics are available from the district.
   Encina's problem is enrollment -- not academics. It has only 935
students this year, making it the district's smallest school, and
enrollment will fall to 856 if current trends continue. But parents and
teachers have lobbied hard to save the school in recent weeks, and
Superintendent George Jeffers has supported staff efforts to boost
enrollment.
   "I think it's marvelous news, it's an excellent school,'' Melody
Pierce, a parent active in the school's Parent-Teacher Association,
said after hearing about the task force decision Wednesday. "All the parents
are telling people about the school  . . . so it won't be the best-kept
secret in town," she said.
   Encina recently printed brochures about its Academy of Science and
Technology  for students interested in cabinetry, computer, medical,
mechanical, electrical, drafting, welding, or engineering careers.
Also planned are teacher exchanges with neighboring schools, expansion
of a Genesis program for low-achieving students, and more contact with
students in elementary and middle schools, Triplett said.
   "Encina was built for about 1,200 students," he said, and "I don't think
we'll have any difficulty reaching our capacity in a relatively short period
of time, if not next year then the following year."
   Encina was the only high school being studied for closure, but the task
force is weighing several dozen other proposals involving
consolidation, closure, or construction of district facilities. If Encina
were closed, the district could save $800,000 annually in
operating expenses, and the 45-acre school site could be sold for an
estimated $4 million, officials said last month.