San Diego Unified officials have confirmed what many have suspected: they do not know the exact number of students each district-run school can accommodate.
This uncertainty comes amidst a backdrop of declining enrollment, which has plagued San Diego County schools for over a decade. The region’s decreasing birth rates and high living costs have contributed to this trend, with San Diego Unified experiencing a loss of nearly 14,000 students, representing about a 13 percent decline.
Despite ongoing inquiries about underenrollment, district officials have struggled to provide definitive answers. The ramifications of these declines could lead to a significant impact on school funding and the potential for closures, as seen in other districts like South Bay Union, which made drastic decisions due to similar concerns earlier this year.
The urgent question of how many schools in San Diego Unified are underenrolled raises significant concerns about the future of the district. Understanding school capacity is vital to determining which schools might face closure risks. However, district officials maintain that calculating school capacity requires a complex evaluation of multiple factors, such as the types of programs each school offers.
According to Marceline Sciuto, the executive director of operations support for San Diego Unified, assessing capacity is not a straightforward, formula-driven task. She explained that they calculate capacity on an individual school basis and only when necessary, such as when new programs are introduced or when charter schools request to use district facilities.
In a candid admission, Sciuto stated that “a districtwide capacity report as requested does not currently exist,” and producing such data would exceed the current staff and resources available to the district. This raises concerns about the efficacy and resource allocation within a district with a nearly $2 billion budget.
The reluctance to produce a comprehensive view of school capacities is puzzling. It is challenging to accept that calculating these figures would overwhelm the district’s resources, especially when larger districts, such as Chicago Public Schools, manage to maintain these statistics despite having more than 500 schools. An investigative report by ProPublica and Chalkbeat found that around 30 percent of Chicago’s schools were operating at less than half their capacity, with approximately 47 schools serving fewer than one-third of their potential student body.
Though the Chicago examples offer a stark contrast to San Diego, they also serve as a cautionary tale. No one desires school closures; it is a deeply unpopular decision among students, staff, and the surrounding communities. Yet, the financial burdens associated with severely underenrolled schools cannot be ignored.
Under-enrollment brings with it elevated fixed costs that do not diminish with the drop in student numbers, resulting in expensive spending per student. For instance, Chicago Public Schools allocate about $18,700 per student overall, yet costs at their most severely underenrolled schools soar to nearly $93,000 per student. Such figures indicate that funds are being misallocated, effectively reducing resources available to other students in the district.
While San Diego Unified does not report schools as extreme as Chicago’s most underenrolled institutions, there are schools within the district that have seen their enrollment nearly cut in half over the past decade.
As the realities of declining enrollment continue, compounded by persistent birth rate declines and high living costs in the region, the future landscape of education in San Diego remains uncertain. School officials are urged to consider these challenges seriously to ensure they make informed, thoughtful decisions going forward.
The pressing concern remains about the scale of underenrollment within San Diego Unified. Just how many schools are struggling to fill their classrooms, and by how much are they underenrolled?
At this time, these answers remain elusive.
image source from：voiceofsandiego
