Muirlands High School reverses eight-year declining enrollment trend – San Diego Union-Tribune

After eight straight years of declining enrollment at Muirlands High School in La Jolla, the 2024-25 school year brought a promising change in dynamics.

Muirlands started the school year in August with 743 students, an increase of almost 7% from the target enrollment of 695 students. According to Principal Jeff Luna, the unexpected development provided the school with additional resources.

To accommodate 48 additional students, the school added math, science, physical education and world language sections. Additionally, the San Diego Unified School District awarded Muirlands additional staffing funds, which Luna chose to use internally.

“When I was increasing staffing based on enrollment, I was able to talk to the facility and the staff we currently have on campus and we were able to come to an agreement for them to take on additional sections of work,” Luna said.

Luna hired five teachers to take the courses in which they specialized, and some of them took classes during preparatory periods. He said the strategy made more sense than looking for one teacher to teach all subjects, which he called a rare occurrence.

“I think it went extremely smoothly – as best as we could have hoped – and I attribute it all to the fact that we were able to add these additional sections in-house and not bring in outside people to do a job that would require an adjustment period and a learning curve for them.” – Luna said.

“This helps maintain the stability of our curriculum and the high expectations we have for our children on campus and our teaching.”

Luna said the school assumed enrollment would increase at the end of summer break, when there was a marked increase in enrollment from people new to the area or transferring from another school.

Luna speculated that the recognition of Muirlands at the local and district level may have resulted in higher than expected enrollment numbers.

In 2024, Muirlands was one of nine San Diego Unified Schools named a California Outstanding School by the state Department of Education. This was also described in US News and World Report as the No. 1 junior high school in the district.

Luna said the criteria for these distinctions include the school’s performance on statewide assessments, campus culture and progress of low-performing students.

“These are really nice recognitions and there could be many reasons for this, but I think it has something to do with people taking a serious look at Muirlands for the programs we offer, the success of our students (and) the opportunities kids have on our campus.” Luna said.

Having reached 1,076 students in the 2015–16 school year, recruitment to Muirlands it fell every yeara total of 696 in 2023–24. Many California schools, including several in La Jolla, have struggled to maintain enrollment and attendance rates in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the state level, the number of students enrolled in transitional public schools in kindergarten through 12th grade fell below 6 million in 2023, and that number will drop to 5.19 million in the next decade if current trends continue, according to the California Department of Finance.

Locally, San Diego Unified is looking at, among others: predicted a deficit of $176.4 million for next school year, due in part to an overall decline in student enrollment (which impacts state funding), higher operating costs and the expiration of pandemic aid funds.

On the plus side, Muirlands isn’t the only school in La Jolla’s five-campus SDUSD cluster seeing promising student growth.

La Jolla and Torrey Pines elementary schools both saw student enrollment increases this year.

The LJES program exceeded projections for the third year in a row, enrolling 565 students this school year, almost 40 more than in 2023-2024.

Torrey Pines’ count now stands at 467, up from 452 last year.

To better equip La Jolla Elementary to meet its increased population, the school was assigned a part-time assistant principal for the first time in its history. history.

LJES Principal Stephanie Hasselbrink attributes the increase in enrollment to post-pandemic recovery and the completion of an extensive curriculum renovation project.

During the 3.5-year project, “every part of the school was touched,” Hasselbrink said, which included upgrading infrastructure, removing portable classrooms in favor of new buildings and improving safety measures.

“It was a huge challenge, especially with the pandemic,” Hasselbrink said. “I think the construction team and the district did a great job.”

The school now offers two Universal Transitional Kindergarten, or UTK, courses after building limited classroom space.

Hasselbrink said she expects the three-year increase in enrollment to continue and bring enrollment to a pre-pandemic high of more than 600 students.

Originally published: October 26, 2024 at 18:20