This past week, Foothill has busy been preparing for the incoming students for the 2015-2016 school year.

Foothill is a magnet public school, which means that students are enrolled through an unbiased and random lottery.

Students across the district completed “School of Choice” forms detailing their selection of school for the following year.

After all the paperwork was completed and filed at the Ventura Unified District office, the Foothill administration notified families with letters.

This year 707 students applied, which is slightly more than last year’s record number of applications. Only 308 of these applicants were sent admittance letters, and 269 students were waiting listed. 

The number of freshman applications was 577, the exact same number as last year.

Of the 308 accepted, 280 students confirmed their spots for the next school year. 

The school is aiming for a freshman class of 280-285 students, and will accept a few juniors and seniors. However, principal Joe Bova fears that Foothill will admit very few, if any, sophomores due to the already large class of 2018 and the pressing issue of Foothill being over capacity.

“It’s pretty stressful. [These families] want to get into a school with limited spots,” Bova said. “[The student size] can’t grow anymore than it is right now; we’re really capped out.”

The original capacity of the campus was 800. It was then adjusted to 900, but Foothill currently has approximately 1,030 students enrolled.

“[Students have] experienced how crowded it is around here; it’s definitely tight, and we definitely need more space and facilities,” Bova said.  “But we obviously have a great staff and some great students and we all make it work.”

The administration was worried that the new addition of athletics at Foothill would dissuade students from applying to the school. Consequently, they marketed hard with improvements in the website as well as by hiring distinguished coaches.

“We’ve had more applications last year and this year than any previous years; I don’t know if you can correlate that with athletics,” said Bova. “[Athletics] definitely hasn’t hurt our numbers.”

 Background Photo Credit: Josh Ren/The Foothill Dragon Press