While districts across the state are shuttering schools due to declining enrollment, Gilroy's public school population is growing with unprecedented speed. The district reported 10,367 general education students enrolled as of Sept. 3, 2008, compared to 10,844 on Sept. 1, 2009.

A sparkling new high school, savings compared to a private school education and rising test scores made Gilroy Unified School District an attractive district to attend, public school administrators said.

Overall, the district added 330 high school students, 106 middle school students - the majority of whom attend Ascencion Solorsano Middle School - and 35 elementary school students this year.

The middle school growth "surprised us," said Roger Cornia, district enrollment coordinator.

Cornia attributed that jump to the economy. While many parents start their children in private schools, the progression from elementary to middle school provides a natural break to reassess finances, Cornia said. And with so many families losing work, parents are making the shift from private to public at the middle school level, he said.

"I get calls all the time where dad lost his job and mom's hours got cut, and they can't afford private school anymore," Cornia said. "I get one or two calls like that a week. It's sad."

With 1,115 students, Solorsano Principal Sal Tomasello hired three new teachers just days before school started and has 10 portables on a campus that's only six years old. The school is nearly the size of the other two middle schools - South Valley and Brownell - combined.

As long as those school keep missing federal growth targets, the district may not be able to even out the school populations. Federal law allows parents to move their children out of schools that don't meet testing standards for two years running. As Solorsano is the only middle school to meet these standards, it could get "at least two more years of kids," Tomasello said. The district added another assistant principal to the school's staff this year to handle what's becoming an unwieldy student population, Superintendent Deborah Flores said.

Like Solorsano, high-performing Las Animas and Luigi Aprea elementary schools - which house 651 and 773 students, respectively - also mushroomed, adding 54 and 63 students, respectively.

At the high school level, the opening of Gilroy's long-awaited second comprehensive high school, Christopher High School, attracted 663 freshman and sophomores, and relieved Gilroy High School of 430 students.

Another magnet, the Dr. T.J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, added a new freshman class of 69 students this year. The school opened in 2007 to a freshman class of about 75 students and added another grade level each year since then. The school now serves 205 ninth, 10th and 11th graders. The early college academy's attendance area is the same as Gavilan college, and reaches to Morgan Hill, Hollister, Los Banos and Dos Palos, according to the school's administrative assistant, Linda Martinez.

The closing of Gilroy's only charter school, El Portal Leadership Academy, over the summer caused the reassignment of about 100 of its students back into mainstream public schools, but this did not affect the district's enrollment as El Portal's students were already counted as district students.

Even though new housing construction in Gilroy remains stagnant, Cornia said more families are moving in together in neighborhoods around El Roble and Rod Kelley elementary schools. While this means more children at schools, it does not mean more money to house them. The school district receives money from the state based on its student population for the district's salaries and daily expenses. However, it receives the bulk of its construction budget from fees paid by developers building new houses. When families move in together, no such fees are paid.

Though Gilroy private schools reported mixed enrollment, they too agreed that the economy posed a threat to their student base. The 75-student Anchorpoint Christian School lost about 10 students this school year, said Registrar Susan Urbanski.

"Enrollment's gone down - I assume because of the economy," she said. "So many parents I'm talking to are losing their homes and jobs."

Four Anchorpoint students went to Christopher High this year, Urbanski said.

"I think they're hoping that with Christopher High, it's still a small school that can provide kids with more individual attention," she said.

St. Mary School's enrollment is up compared to last year, but down compared to previous years, said Vicki Campanella, assistant to the principal. Two years ago, the Catholic school experienced a significant drop in population and is working to rebuild its enrollment from 279 students to 310.

Though Pacific West Christian Academy's enrollment held steady this year with around 300 elementary and middle school students, Principal Donna Garcia said she saw an increase in scholarship requests. The school's annual tuition is $5,313 for the lower grades and $5,698 for junior high.

Garcia said she still meets new families seeking options that aren't available in public schools any more due to budget cuts.

"What I've seen that's interesting is people who were sending their children to more expensive schools in the Bay Area are coming back down," she said.