South Bay Union closes Central Elementary as it grapples with declining enrollment
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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.