South Bay Union closes Central Elementary as it grapples with declining enrollment
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.

Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
The South Bay Union School District voted Wednesday night to close Central Elementary, but it decided not to close two other elementary schools coping with declining enrollment.
Why it matters: School closures can leave holes in communities, leading to not just lower test scores but also declining home values and rising crime rates.
State of play: School districts nationwide are dealing with a looming "enrollment cliff," a decade-long dip in school-aged kids due to the drop in birth rates around the 2008 recession.
By the numbers: SBUSD has already lost nearly 2,369 students since the 2011-12 school year and expects to lose another 239 by the end of 2026-27.
- The district's total student population is 6,012, across 12 schools.
- SBUSD told NBC 7 that housing affordability, an aging population, and impacts from the pandemic have added to the national birth-rate decline to hurt enrollment.
Driving the news: Jose Espinoza, the district's superintendent, recommended closing three elementary schools — Central, Berry and Sunnyslope — but the board decided to close only Central, home to 500 students, by 2027.
What's next: The district will further analyze two more potential closures and discuss the issue with the community in the coming years.
- Central is in Imperial Beach. Berry and Sunnyslope are in San Diego, in the Nestor and Palm City neighborhoods, respectively.
Between the lines: In front of a standing-room-only crowd at the board meeting, Espinoza said he recommended the closure of Berry and Sunnyslope because they were the district's smallest schools.
- Central, he said, was a special situation, because the building is in disrepair and needs $49 million in improvements just to meet immediate safety needs.
- "What the architect said is ... we were better off demolishing Central and building it back brand new if we wanted to keep that school," he told the board.
