Facing a budget deficit and declining enrollment, South Bay Union School District says it might close two more elementary schools in the next six years, months after deciding to shutter another.
Under a plan approved Wednesday night, Sunnyslope Elementary could close after the 2028-29 school year and Berry Elementary at the end the 2031-32 school year, “subject to review of enrollment and financial data.”
The move comes months after the board unanimously greenlit the closure of Central Elementary at the end of the current school year.
The plan they considered in May initially included closing Sunnyslope and Berry — but officials decided at the time to revisit those later, removing their names from the plans.
On Wednesday, the school board approved a new resolution they said would clarify and expand on the May consolidation plan, adding those two schools back into the resolution by name.
Superintendent Jose Espinoza said he suspected that when the board asked in May for their names to be taken off, its members hadn’t actually intended to stop considering the schools for closure.
“If, in fact, we are considering Sunnyslope in a couple of years and Berry in a few more years, then I think we need to be transparent,” he said.
Espinoza said those two schools were identified when they were working with a committee. Of the district’s elementary schools, Berry, Emory Academy and Mendoza Elementary had the steepest enrollment drops, with Sunnyslope not far behind.
Berry, Emory and Mendoza are all close to each other. Sunnyslope is farther away and has facility issues.
Espinosa and other officials stressed that under the resolution the board passed, enrollment and financial data will be reviewed and monitored, and depending on progress made, it’s not certain the schools will close.
“This is not a plan to close schools,” Espinoza said.
He said the district wants to keep open many schools as possible, but the reality is enrollment is still dropping. “That is just not sustainable,” he added.
He said the goal is to maintain as many schools as possible and, when they redrew boundaries, the goal is to stabilize enrollment. Espinoza said both Berry and Sunnyslope got more students.
Enrollment has been sliding in recent years in school districts throughout the region and the state, but it has dropped particularly steeply in the South Bay district.
Since 2017, the district has lost a third of its enrollment, falling from more than 5,500 students in 2017 to just 3,647, state data show. By contrast, enrollment fell in nearby San Ysidro Elementary by less than 14%, and in Chula Vista Elementary by about 5%.
At Wednesday’s meeting, members of the public who spoke opposed the plan, some criticizing the level of transparency about the closure requirements and how quickly the plan was changed.
Vanessa Barrera said that with “ink barely dry” on its May decision to remove the names of schools slated for closure, the board was already changing plans.
“If you are going to upend our children’s education again, you owe us the respect of a conversation before the decision is made, not after,” she said.
At the May meeting, which also drew fierce public opposition, Espinoza said that the plan was structured so the district could pivot if needed, and that the board would need to find other cuts if they opted not to close the schools.
His plan for closing the three schools differed from that of an advisory committee that had met for over a year — but both agreed on the need to close Central, which had nearly $50 million in immediate construction needs. That committee had also recommended closing another school, but not Sunnyslope or Berry.
On Wednesday, calling himself a “very, very proud Berry Bear,” trustee Jose Lopez Eguino asked the board to add language to put a taskforce together to partner with the community.
“What are we doing to keep the schools open?” he said, before being drowned out by cheers from the audience.
His colleagues declined to add the amendment. At the end of the meeting, he asked to explore such a task force at a future meeting.