When the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the world population was only about 800 million. With the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century and the Baby Boom following World War II in the mid-20th century, that number greatly increased. Now, there are seven billion people around the world.

With this increase in population comes an increase of young children who need an education. At the heart of Silicon Valley, where companies like Facebook, Google and Apple draw families, the population of Palo Alto has increased between 2000 and 2010 by about 10 percent, including a 14 percent increase in the Asian community.

In the 1996-1997 school year, when many current Palo Alto High School students were just babies, there were 16 schools in the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) and the total enrollment in PAUSD was 9,117 students, with a student-to-teacher ratio of about 18 to 1. Ever since then, the student population has steadily increased by about 3 percent every year.

Last school year, the district consisted of 17 schools and 11,987 students. According to Paly principal Phil Winston, the district receives more money overall for supplies and other necessities as the student population increases, but due to the poor economy, Paly has not been receiving as much money per student from the government.

“Typically in non-basic aid districts, you get more money for each student, but that is not necessarily the case here,” Winston said. “What we are seeing here is a steady increase in students, but because of the state budget, we are not seeing the same level of increase in funding. You might see that impact in classrooms with a couple more students in each class.”

Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson, who has been working at Paly for six years, has seen staff work harder and harder to keep Paly the strong academic school that it is.

“Two years ago, we would get $105 per student, but due to the state budget, we are now getting about $70 per student,” Berkson said. “Teachers are working a lot harder now than they were four years ago.”

Although PAUSD is receiving less money from the government, Partners in Education (PiE) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding the district in order to maintain academic opportunities for every student in Palo Alto.

According to papie.org, the school district has received about $15 million from PiE since 2005.

The organization is a major reason why Palo Alto has been able to maintain its academic success.

Throughout the district, schools have seen a steady increase in classroom sizes, but with the help of PiE, more teacher aides are available to give the students the one-on-one attention that they need, especially at the elementary schools.

“We have a few more students in our classrooms than we did a few years ago and we know it can impact student learning,” Mary Bussmann, Principal of Walter Hays Elementary School, said. “However, there are some remedies for the teachers to [provide] in some extra aid support if they need it. Without the extra help from PiE and PTA [Parent Teacher Association] we would really be feeling negative impacts.”

According to Bussmann, teachers are working harder than ever to give elementary students the good foundation of education that they need to succeed later on.

“Our teachers do work so hard to build those foundations for the children,” Bussmann said. “The increasing student population is [impressive], but with the outside support that the district gets, we can pay for the necessary teacher aides.”

The elementary schools see the increase of student population first, which challenges the elementary teachers to find new ways to cope with the influx of students.

When the students finally reach high school, the teachers will hopefully have had ample time to prepare.

Here at Paly, the administration is seeing a larger increase in general than the other schools in the district, but with the help of PiE and other outside financial support, Paly is able to counteract those negative impacts.

“Paly has seen the largest increase between the two high schools,” Winston said. “With every student that is one more student to go around, so there will be an impact, but we are trying really hard to minimize that. The community has helped out a lot with PiE.”