San Lorenzo Valley Schools: How the District Actually Works

The short version

• One valley, one district. San Lorenzo Valley Unified runs five schools from its offices at 325 Marion Avenue in Ben Lomond. Nearly every public school student from Boulder Creek to Felton passes through them.
• The campuses: Boulder Creek Elementary is in town. SLV Elementary is in Felton. SLV Middle and SLV High sit side by side on the Felton campus off Highway 9.
• The charter is a separate application. SLV Charter School runs homeschool hybrids, Nature Academy, and Coast Redwood High School out of Ben Lomond, with its own enrollment.
• Enrollment starts with a phone call to your school's registrar, not an online form. Transfers between valley elementary schools require separate paperwork.
• Busing exists but is limited and paid. One route serves Boulder Creek Elementary. K-12 students ride METRO free.

Every school-day morning in the valley runs downhill. Boulder Creek families head south on Highway 9, past Brookdale and Ben Lomond. By 8 a.m., the Felton campus has absorbed most of the valley's middle and high school students. That single road shapes the district. There's one of nearly everything, most trips require a drive, and the people at the school office tend to know your child's name by October.

Here is how San Lorenzo Valley Unified is organized, what each campus is for, and where to find a date, bus, or transfer form. For the 2026-27 calendar in detail, including every back-to-school night, see our back-to-school guide. For preschool, daycare, and the licensed-care landscape, see schools, preschools, and daycare in the valley.

One district, seven communities

SLVUSD covers Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Felton, Lompico, Zayante, and Mount Hermon. The district office is at 325 Marion Avenue in Ben Lomond and can be reached at 831-336-5194.

The geography matters more than the organizational chart. The district stretches along twenty miles of two-lane highway. That leads to fewer campuses, longer rides, and one high school that nearly every family has an opinion about. It works differently from a flatland district with four elementary schools inside a two-mile square.

One clarification helps when searching online. Our district is San Lorenzo Valley Unified, at slvusd.org. It's routinely confused with San Lorenzo Unified in the East Bay, a separate district with a similar name and a similar-looking website.

The campuses

Boulder Creek Elementary, 400 Lomond Street, 831-338-6413. This is the in-town campus, a short walk from downtown, and the only SLVUSD school inside Boulder Creek. Its website has registration information, the bell schedule, a drop-off and pick-up map worth reading before your first morning, and information about the Parent Club. News and announcements appear on the school's own page.

San Lorenzo Valley Elementary, in Felton. This is the valley's other elementary school, at sle.slvusd.org. Attendance areas determine which elementary school a child attends. Moving between the two requires an intradistrict transfer, not a phone call.

San Lorenzo Valley Middle School, ms.slvusd.org, serves grades six through eight on the Felton campus.

San Lorenzo Valley High School, 7105 Highway 9 in Felton, 831-335-4425. More details appear below.

San Lorenzo Valley Charter School, 325 Marion Avenue in Ben Lomond, charter.slvusd.org. The charter includes several separate programs.

The charter programs, which are not one thing

The district's alternative programs sit under the charter, with distinct options for nearly every stage:

• Heartwood Homeschool (TK to first grade) and Quail Hollow Homeschool (grades two to five), two-day hybrids meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• Coast Redwood Middle School (grades six to eight), a two-day hybrid with a project-based emphasis, and Quail Hollow Integrated Arts, a three-day hybrid pairing online coursework with classroom time.
• Nature Academy (grades six to eight), a traditional five-day program.
• Coast Redwood High School (grades nine to twelve), a hybrid independent study high school accredited by WASC, with classroom hours Monday through Thursday and Friday conferences.

These programs offer alternatives to a five-day comprehensive campus. Charter enrollment requires a separate application from district enrollment. The charter programs page carries the current list.

San Lorenzo Valley High School

The Cougars' campus is at 7105 Highway 9 in Felton. It's the valley's only comprehensive high school.

SLV High offers Advanced Placement courses, Career and Technical Education pathways, dual enrollment with Cabrillo College, a Running Start program, and alternative education. Its Performing Arts Center supports music and theatre programs with help from boosters. Academic counseling, a College and Career Center, and mental health support operate through the counseling office. Start at hs.slvusd.org and use the school's own pages for information tied to a specific date.

Athletics. SLV fields roughly twenty sports across three seasons. Fall includes football, cross country, girls golf, girls tennis, girls volleyball, boys and girls water polo, and girls flag football. Winter includes basketball, soccer, and wrestling. Spring includes baseball, softball, track and field, swimming and diving, boys golf, boys tennis, boys volleyball, girls beach volleyball, and a surf team.

Schedules are posted at slvathletics.org. They're organized by season and include dates, levels, opponents, and mapped venues. The site also offers a subscription option for game reminders and links to NFHS Network for streamed games.

The school's sports page hosts the athlete packet and links for each team. The athletics site links to the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League, and the school maintains CCS and CIF state championship pages. SLV High also publishes a weekly sports newsletter. We don't reprint game schedules here because they change weekly, and a stale schedule is worse than no schedule.

Enrolling, and moving between schools

New students. Contact the registrar at your assigned school to establish pre-enrollment status. Once approved, the registrar emails instructions for completing registration online. The district asks families to finish it within a week.

You'll need proof of your child's age, immunization records, proof of address, and, for TK through first grade, an oral health assessment. Kindergartners must be five by September 1. TK students must turn four before that date. The enrollment page has the packets and registrar contacts.

Returning families. The PowerSchool enrollment portal opens in the spring for annual updates. The district notifies families by letter or email. Keep emergency contacts and phone numbers current because the district uses that record when something goes wrong.

Transfers. An intradistrict transfer moves a student between SLVUSD elementary schools, such as from Boulder Creek Elementary to SLV Elementary. It uses an Application for Open Enrollment and only needs to be filed once during a student's school career unless the address changes.

An interdistrict transfer crosses district lines in either direction. It uses the countywide request form. SLVUSD reviews the request before forwarding an approved application to the receiving district.

The window for the following school year opens in early January. Decisions come back within roughly two to four weeks, depending on the filing date. Direct questions to Instructional Services at 831-336-8852 extension 131. The transfer page has the forms.

Getting there from Boulder Creek

District busing is limited. The bus information page lists four named routes. Only the Bunther bus serves Boulder Creek Elementary, along with SLV Middle and the charter. The other three routes run from SLV Elementary and points south.

Bus passes are available annually or by semester, one-way or round trip. Ticket books are available for occasional riders. The most recent posted fee list ran $220 for an annual round-trip pass and $20 for a book of twenty tickets. Students with severe disabilities under an IEP are exempt from fees. Families receiving county assistance can apply for a free pass using form T-3. Call the transportation office at 831-336-2223.

Two options fill the gaps. K-12 students ride Santa Cruz METRO free under Youth Cruz Free. Route 35 runs along the Highway 9 corridor past the Felton campus. Our transit guide covers the service in detail.

Everyone else drives. Highway 9 thickens between 7:30 and 8:15 and again at pickup. If the road is new to you, read driving the mountain roads before your first week.

The dates that move your week

The 2026-27 school year started Thursday, August 6, 2026, and ends Thursday, June 3, 2027. It includes 180 instructional days. Three parts of the calendar require particular attention:

• Back-to-school nights are spread across a week and a half in August: SLV Middle on the 12th, SLV High on the 13th, the charter's Nature Academy on the 18th, and both Boulder Creek Elementary and SLV Elementary on the 20th.
• Early-out Wednesdays happen at the elementary schools every week except October 21, 2026. Boulder Creek Elementary releases at 1:15 p.m., and SLV Elementary releases at 1:25 p.m. Middle and high school early-outs fall on scattered Mondays instead. The middle school releases at 1:40, and the high school releases at 2:01.
• Parent-teacher conference week at the elementary schools runs from October 19 to 23, 2026. SLV Elementary releases at noon that week.

Grades follow trimesters in K-5 and semesters in grades 6-12. The district publishes both reporting calendars on the same sheet. The district calendar page is the authority if anything changes. Each school also posts its own calendar.

How the district talks to you

There's no single information feed. Grades, records, and annual re-registration are in the PowerSchool parent portal.

Day-to-day news comes from the school, not the district. Boulder Creek Elementary sends Smore newsletters and posts news on its site. SLV High publishes Cougar Weekly and a separate weekly sports newsletter. The district website carries the calendar, department pages, and board information.

A missing school email is almost always caused by a wrong address in PowerSchool. The school office can correct it.

Frequently asked questions

Which high school do Boulder Creek students attend?

San Lorenzo Valley High School at 7105 Highway 9 in Felton, the valley's only comprehensive high school. Coast Redwood High School, the charter's hybrid independent study program in Ben Lomond, is the district-run alternative.

How many schools does SLVUSD have?

Five: Boulder Creek Elementary, San Lorenzo Valley Elementary, SLV Middle, SLV High, and SLV Charter School. The charter runs several distinct programs, including Nature Academy and Coast Redwood High School.

Is there a school bus from Boulder Creek?

Yes, one. The Bunther route serves Boulder Creek Elementary along with SLV Middle and the charter. Passes are sold annually or by semester, with a fee-waiver path for qualifying families. Call transportation at 831-336-2223 to confirm this year's stops and times.

How do I switch my child from one valley elementary school to the other?

That's an intradistrict transfer. File an Application for Open Enrollment with Instructional Services, 831-336-8852 extension 131. It only needs to be filed once unless your address changes.

Where do I find SLV High sports schedules?

At slvathletics.org, which lists every team by season with venues and times and offers game reminders by subscription. Schedules change from week to week, so use the source instead of a printed list.

Details here come from SLVUSD, the individual school sites, and Santa Cruz METRO, all linked above. Dates and fees change, so confirm anything time-sensitive with the district before relying on it. Spot something out of date? Tell us. Last reviewed August 5, 2026.

Once school is handled, the rest of the week is covered in kids' activities around Boulder Creek, and the wider support list is in our family resources guide.