This school year of 2016-2017, the school population at Wilcox is 1,982 students, the largest it has been in recent years. Wilcox and the SCUSD district have had to make changes accordingly in order to avoid overcrowding the only two high schools in the district, Wilcox High School and Santa Clara High School.

A larger number of students can change the demographic of our school. However, Wilcox has made sure that the growth in numbers will not present an obstacle to the community. Principal Gonzalez states, “The diversity of the Wilcox student population has been sustained as the population grows. This diversity presents great opportunities for our students and staff to learn more about world cultures and to work with people from different backgrounds and experiences.” The increase in student population has greatly affected the Wilcox community, and the district office and Wilcox staff have done a great job in supporting this growth.

Due to the larger student population, “the front attendance office is super busy this year,” says Emerita Botello, the attendance counselor. “All the departments have been a lot busier too.” In order to compensate for a bigger school population, the school and district have been changing things up. According to Principal Gonzalez, “The growth in enrollment combined with our district’s goal of lowering class sizes led to a hiring of three additional teaching positions.” In previous years the maximum number of students in a class was thirty-eight, but now classes cap off at thirty-six. “So even though there are more students, we are also getting more teachers to make classes smaller,” asserts Mr. Beadell. Studies have shown that smaller classes can enable teachers to focus on individual students more, which can help with the overall academic success of each student. To accommodate more students, “the Child Nutrition Department plans more student meals daily,” explains the principal, “and we have ordered twelve new picnic tables for the quad so students can have places to sit and eat at lunch.”

There are many explanations as to why there were more students this year, but it seems that everyone agrees on one thing. “Because of new developments and more apartments, lots of families have been moving in,” says Ms. Botello. Just in the city of Sunnyvale, there are about eighteen new developments to be built for residential purposes, and sixteen in the city of Santa Clara. These new developments will attract more people to Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. The new Apple campus will also bring their employees and their families to Sunnyvale which will increase the population of the city and the schools. Mr. Beadell predicts that “it’s going to get worse until the new high school is built.” In order to be able to take in more students, the district has been planning to build a new high school on the recently purchases Agnews property in northern San Jose, about six miles away from Wilcox. “The City of Santa Clara has been growing and continues to grow. The need for another high school to serve the students and families in our community is clear,” explains Principal Gonzalez. “Additionally, the location of the new high school will be much more convenient for students and families who live in the northern part of our city, as they will not have to travel as far to school.” The district is planning to build a K-8 school and a high school on the  property, which will lessen the pressure on where to put students. The new school may open in five to six years from now.

The growth in the school population will not stop here; the Silicon Valley is growing as more people move in and new apartments and developments are built. The district will have to continue to make new changes to accommodate, and hopefully this academic year will help prepare the district for the growing nature of the Silicon Valley.