The Effects of Ravenswood High School
May 17, 2020
Due to the low income of families in EPA, schools aren’t able to receive a large amount of fundraising. Forty years ago, this was a significant factor in why schools weren’t able to run.
Beginning in the 1980s, after Ravenswood High School in EPA shut down due to low enrollment and financial constraints, the district decided to distribute the students that were attending Ravenswood to the other schools in the district, including Carlmont. This diversified Carlmont, but the community and families from EPA wanted to put an end to busing and have their teenagers attend a closer school, Menlo-Atherton (M-A).
In 2013, the district board voted to end the busing of students in a 4-1 ruling. Students from EPA could now request a transfer to M-A as incoming ninth-graders, placing them before students applying to M-A through the district’s open enrollment system. The open enrollment system allows any student who lives in the Sequoia Union High School District to transfer to any of the schools within the district, provided there is space.
It is a 50-minute round trip bus ride both ways from EPA to M-A. In contrast, a roundtrip bus ride between EPA and Carlmont takes around three hours every day.
A sophomore from Carlmont High School, Sosefo Ahofono, is one of those who makes the round trip bus ride beginning at 5:30 a.m. He often struggles to finish the homework due to this early-morning routine.