14 SDUSD Schools Face Closure Next Year

San Diego Unified School District reported Friday that they will consider the closure of over a dozen schools at the end of this school year.  

The closures were proposed to achieve five million dollars worth of cuts to cover the district's budget deficit, according to school officials.

"There could be anywhere from five to 14 schools closed by the end of the year," said Julie Martel, Principal at Pacific Beach Middle School and a member of the Closure Realignment Committee.

 

Schools that may be closed at the end of the year include Cadman, Cabrillo, Cubberly, Franklin, Marvin, Paradise Hills and Vista Grande elementary schools.

 

Pacific Beach Middle School has been considered for closure, with a plan to relocate students to Mission Bay High School and create a Grade 6 to 12 program.  "That's not going to happen this year," Martel said.  

 

She added that students currently bused to the school would have to be returned to their neighborhood schools, then new structures would need to be built before the students could move.

 

Parents have already started campaigning to save the schools from closure and Martel agreed no one would want to see happen. 

 

On Friday, parents outside Crown Point Elementary in Pacific Beach passed out flyers urging other parents to represent the school at Tuesday's school board meeting.  

 

Raul Cadena, one of those passing out the flyers, said Crown Point should not be closed down.

 

"I think schools that are achieving, that are successful, should remain intact," said Cadena, "Programs that are not doing so well, those are the ones that should be focused on to possibly close down."

 

Martel gave other criteria, "There are a lot of schools that are not at capacity and we need to right-size our schools."

 

The district also said additional closures may be needed in the future.  

 

About 21 schools could be considered including Adams, Carver, Spreckels elementary.  De Portola and Taft middle school among many others.

 

In the end, the district said these are merely proposals and will be open for discussion in the coming weeks, however district officials said they wanted to make a decision by December to have time to prepare for the next school year.