Understanding how school selection works in El Cerrito
Hello - in researching elementary schools in El Cerrito on BPN I came across a posting from a family who lived in El Cerrito but was on the waitlist for kindergarten for their zoned elementary school (Harding). Perhaps I misunderstood the situation, but can anyone help me understand how elementary school placement works in El Cerrito? Are you not placed in your zoned neighborhood school? Thanks in advance.
Apr 11, 2017
Parent Replies
If you complete the enrollment on time (early January of each year for the coming fall), the child should get placed in his/her zoned school. I was surprised as well by someone who said they were on the waiting list. Maybe they enrolled late?
WCCUSD has neighborhood schools. If your friend's child was placed on a waitlist, they may have enrolled late, after all the slots were filled. Register your child on the first day of registration (usually in mid-January) and you should be good to go!
You will get your zoned school as long as there is room. There isn't always room though. Get your registration information in asap.
We got our zoned school for kindergarten but then moved into a different zone for second grade and were put on the wait list. My daughter started at our neighborhood school on day 4 of the school year. She went to her old school for the first three days. It wasn't ideal but it was worth it.
What you need to do is stalk your neighborhood school's website to figure out when registration is and then get there early on that day with all of the required documents.
Schools work on a first-come first-serve basis. So if they are put on the waiting list, you should inquire where they could transfer to. If they are not able to be placed in their zoned school, you can request a transfer to another school within the district.
You have to go the the Harding office and register/enroll your child. It is first come first served and the number of people lined up varies from year to year. The year that I enrolled my Daughter I was about 5th in line and it was very calm. Recent years have been more competitive. Call the office and ask them what they're expecting this year. As an additional tip - do not assume that any siblings will automatically be enrolled in future years. You have to go down and enroll them also.
Harding has been a great school and we're all looking forward to Korematsu.
If you register early on "registration day", you should not have any problems. Try to be there early and have all your documents in order. Copies of documents are not accepted.
The people that I know that did not get in their zoned school was because they registered late (months past registration day).
WCCUSD had neighborhood schools so in theory if you show up early on registration day (usually in January) you can enroll. Note you need to come early - parents at our school (Madera) line up as early as 6:00am to register their Kindergarteners!
The reason for waitlist though is that there are currently more school-age children in El Cerrito than school spots, especially in K-3 (which have smaller class sizes). A few years ago El Cerrito closed an elementary school (Castro) to build the new middle school on that site. The Castro enrollment area was divided between the other three schools. At the time there was a smaller number of children in city.
Well those demographics have changed with an influx of new families. As far as I know, Harding is the only EC Elementary that is not above 100% capacity. Madera and Fairmont both have more families in their enrollment areas then they can accommodate, hence the waitlists. It's an issue that will have to be addressed as more families move to El Cerrito, and the city encourages denser housing development along the transit corridor.
Enroll early and have all your paperwork ready! That's the best you can do.