School Realignment

Background: San Diego Unified School District is facing a sixth year of reductions in state funding. As part of its budget submission for the 2011-12 school year, it must submit the plan for the current year and projections for the next two years. The submission for the 2012-13 school year included $5 million that could come from "school realignments," which can include closing schools, changes to grade-level configurations, moving and consolidating programs, and the need for additional school sites, should additional capital funds become available.

The School Realignment Committee has been meeting since January in an attempt to help the district right itself related to programs, schools and grade levels.

In July 2011, the board approved an amendment to its policy on school closing to shorten its timeframe. This will require staff to participate in extensive community engagement through November. Such engagement will inform the discussions of the committee as they continue. There are no immediate cost savings or cost to the recommendations contained in this item.

The Board approved the following at the Sept. 13, 2011 Board of Education meeting:

• Authorize the committee to continue its work towards the right-sizing of schools, programs and grade level configurations, taking into consideration the input of the cluster communities.

• Authorize that community discussion begin in high school clusters that may have schools closed: Mission Bay, Clairemont, Crawford, Henry, Hoover, Kearny, Madison, Morse, Serra, Point Loma, atypical schools. Grade level changes, movement of programs and recommendations for new programs and schools will be held with all clusters. A high school cluster is the area high schools and the middle and elementary schools that feed into it.