If You Build It, They Will Come--Eventually--District in Calif. Finds

By Laura Miller

In October of last year, the Roseville, Calif., school district found itself in a backward situation by the standards of California and other states with booming school enrollments: It had a new $6.5 million elementary school, but no students to fill it.

Construction on Vencil Brown Elementary School began in 1992 in preparation for the hundreds of children who were expected to move into a housing development planned nearby.

But with the downturn in the economy, the housing development was put on hold, said Jim Roberts, the superintendent of the 5,100-student...