School Site Boundary Changes
Due to new home construction in the city of San Luis Obispo, some of our city elementary schools (C.L. Smith, Hawthorne, Los Ranchos) are seeing growth while others are experiencing declining enrollment (Bishop’s Peak and Sinsheimer). With more housing development happening soon, we have updated our current school boundaries to even out our student populations. The updated boundaries will go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year.
If you click on the maps above, you’ll see that the current boundaries are:
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Dark Green – Bishop’s Peak
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Peach – Hawthorne
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Yellow – Sinsheimer
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Pink – Smith
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Bright Green – Los Ranchos
The New Boundaries are indicated by the bold lines on the map:
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C.L. Smith: the new boundary runs along Highway 101 – that C.L. Smith area was moved to Los Ranchos boundary.
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Hawthorne: Marsh Street and Pismo Street are the new Bishop’s Peak boundaries; these Hawthorne students were moved to Bishop’s Peak.
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Los Ranchos: The new housing by Orcutt Road and Tank Farm was moved to Sinsheimer’s boundary.
Results of these changes:
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Reduced enrollment at C.L. Smith Elementary and Hawthorne Elementary Schools;
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Increased enrollment at Bishop’s Peak Elementary and Sinsheimer Elementary Schools; and;
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A student population shift at Los Ranchos Elementary School. This boundary change will reduce the population in the short term and allow for future growth as the Los Ranchos Elementary School boundary is where the most future growth is located (Avila Ranch).
By grandfathering in the boundaries, there are no impacts on current students, or their incoming siblings. It will change the boundaries for families currently not attending SLCUSD schools. The change in school populations will not happen overnight; it will take time as new students begin school and current students move on to middle school.
Note, this does not affect our elementary schools on the coast (Baywood, Monarch Grove, and Del Mar). All our coastal schools have been experiencing declining enrollment for the past few years, likely due to lack of development and higher housing costs. This also does not affect Teach or Pacheco, as those are “schools of choice” and do not have specific boundaries.