South County Schools Confront Declining Enrollment, Budgets 

For years, the city of Chula Vista stood out as an engine of population growth in South San Diego County. 

Even as neighboring cities posted modest growth or even declined in population, Chula Vista’s abundant vacant land and pro-growth policies drew more than 30,000 new residents from 2010 to 2020. 

The growth benefited local schools. 

The Chula Vista Elementary School District, California’s largest elementary-only district, added students at a steady clip and even built several new schools to accommodate families flocking to subdivisions on Chula Vista’s upscale east side. 

The growth was good while it lasted. 

This year, for the first time, the Chula Vista district finds itself joining the ranks of other school districts in the San Diego region grappling with the effects of what appears to be an accelerating trend of enrollment decline. 

Last week, district trustees took the first in what is likely to be a series of votes instituting painful budget cuts brought on by what district officials say is a $33.6 million deficit. 

One major cause of the deficit, trustees said: Enrollment decline. 

Over the past decade, enrollment in Chula Vista elementary schools has declined by more than 6 percent, with much of the drop occurring in the last five years. 

The rate of decline was slightly higher than the countywide average of 5 percent but much lower than in some nearby districts. The South Bay Union School District, which serves Imperial Beach, lost a staggering 37 percent of its students over the past decade. 

School funding is directly tied to enrollment. As the number of students declines, so does money coming from the state. 

To help balance the district’s $260 million budget, Chula Vista district trustees last week voted to eliminate the equivalent of roughly 100 full-time non-teaching jobs throughout the district. 

They postponed a similar vote to eliminate 43 teaching jobs until next month. Teachers and parents packed last week’s meeting and pleaded with board members to look elsewhere in the district’s budget for savings. 

“Please find empathy for teachers,” said Harborside Elementary School teacher Erin Hakes, who was one of dozens of teachers at the standing-room-only meeting. Teachers spilled out the door and brandished signs urging district trustees to “Respect Educators.” 

Hakes said she received a layoff warning notice just months after earning a permanent district teaching position. She said losing her job would make it harder for her to care for her ailing father. 

“My dad’s getting sicker by the day,” she said. “This feels like a slap in the face.” 

Because of the way job hours are allocated, the final tally of layoffs in the district is expected to affect up to 78 employees, a mix of teachers, counselors, classroom aides and other support staff. 

Though the layoffs are a small percentage of the district’s overall workforce of roughly 3,200 employees, trustees said every job loss felt painful. 

“Nobody wants to do it, but we have to,” said Trustee Jessica Tolston. “We need to be fiscally responsible.” 

Part of what made last week’s vote so difficult, trustees said, was the realization that Chula Vista’s days as a regional exception to enrollment trends appears to be ending. 

Some Chula Vista schools, especially on the city’s slower-growing west side, experienced even steeper declines over the past decade than the district-wide average. 

Harborside Elementary near the city’s southwestern border lost more than a fifth of its students. Nearby Loma Verde lost a quarter. 

The losses were partly offset by gains at some schools and the addition of three new campuses on Chula Vista’s burgeoning east side. 

Though the city of Chula Vista itself continues to grow, the pace of growth is slowing. From 2020 to 2024, the city added just 3,000 new residents, according to the U.S. Census. The city’s current population is 278,546. 

Like other surrounding districts, Chula Vista Elementary is confronting a daunting series of challenges in addition to the loss of students. 

Millions of dollars in one-time Covid-era funding have expired, leaving the district scrambling to replace the money or scale back programs. Among those programs: Many of the counseling and special education support jobs district trustees voted to eliminate last week. 

“We all knew this time would come,” said Trustee Francisco Tamayo. “Counselors, I hear you…[But] if we don’t make cuts, we have to pay out of our reserves.” 

At the same time, the district in recent years approved a series of raises for teachers, administrators and other staff, leading county education officials in 2024 to warn that the raises risked pushing the district into a deficit. 

The county’s prediction of fiscal distress has now come true. In a recent budget presentation, district business chief Mark Pong told trustees they need to cut $5 million to avoid depleting the district’s already dwindling emergency reserve fund. 

At last week’s school board meeting, teachers told district trustees that, even with recent raises, they still struggle to pay for health care as insurance premiums rise. 

“We urge the district to take meaningful action to support teachers’ healthcare costs,” Rosi Martinez, president of the teachers union, said to board members. The union is currently negotiating a new contract. 

“Show we are a priority,” Martinez said. 

So far, Chula Vista Elementary has been spared the worst effects of region-wide budgetary challenges. In the South Bay Union district, trustees recently voted to close three schools and narrowly averted a strike by district teachers. 

The San Ysidro School District has been beset by infighting among school board members and has faced calls from parents and community members to oust the superintendent. 

“We’re not in a crisis right now, folks,” Chula Vista board chair Lucy Ugarte said at last week’s meeting. “We’re trying to prevent it…Putting off minimal layoffs now could result in mass layoffs later and a county takeover.” 

It was not all doom at gloom at last week’s Chula Vista Elementary board meeting. District leaders shared recently published results from California’s statewide school performance dashboard that show the district’s schools are holding steady or slightly improving in key areas. 

District students are exceeding state standards in English and making improvements in rates of chronic absenteeism and suspensions. 

Though students fall below state standards for math, they didn’t lose ground last year. And Chula Vista Elementary students are ahead of their peers in surrounding districts. 

Students in National City, San Ysidro and Imperial Beach all posted test scores far below state standards last year, in some cases more than four times lower than Chula Vista Elementary students. 

District spokesperson Giovanna Castro said Chula Vista’s results show that, despite challenges, the district “remains committed to fostering a collaborate environment where families, staff and community work together to support every child’s success.” 

Superintendent Eduardo Reyes added at last week’s meeting that his own staff was making cuts in an effort to keep as much money as possible in classrooms. Reyes said senior leaders were reducing or consolidating jobs at district headquarters and, so far, had managed to save close to $1 million. 

“The work that we are doing…is evident in the results we are seeing,” Castro said. 

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