The High School Task Force, made up of Paly, Gunn, district office, and parent representatives, will visit Monta Vista High School in Cupertino at 2 p.m. this Thursday to learn about high school expansion: one of the options for dealing with the growing enrollment in Palo Alto high schools.

Demographics show that in the next 10 to 15 years as the enrollment in Palo Alto schools grows, the number of students will surpass the high schools’ capacities. The Task Force is exploring different options to deal with the projected enrollment numbers.

“Right now Paly is at 1,700 students and can accommodate 200-300 more students as it is,” said assistant superintendent and former Paly principal Scott Laurence. “The Task Force is looking at solutions for the years 2015-2018 as we grow too large for the high schools as they are.”

The Task Force chose to visit Monta Vista because it is a high performing school in the 2,300 student range, according to Laurence.

“The pros of increasing the size of the current schools are that there will be more elective choices,” Laurence said. “The class size wouldn’t change because the student to teacher ratio has to remain the same. One problem with expansion is that there will be the same number of people on each team/group in extracurricular activities even though there will be more students.”

The Task Force has recognized that it must consider alternative suggestions including middle college, online learning, and a specialty high school. The Task Force has looked into and will continue looking into these possibilities as well. Foothill Community College recently made a presentation to the Task Force about Middle College.

“The specialty high school is shelved for now because the planning horizon is too long for our growing time,” said Paly parent representative Suzanne Attenborough.

Although no final decisions will be made soon, the Task Force is enthusiastically looking at its choices.

“Right now the Task Force is in conversational stages and we are learning a lot about the different options,” Laurence said.