Sweeping changes are coming to some San Diego Unified School District K-8 schools, specifically targeting the southeastern region where low-income families are prominent, according to NBC 7 San Diego. The district has decided to eliminate middle school grades (6-8) at Audubon, Bethune, and Fulton schools - choices to phase these programs out will be given with options to close at the end of the current school year or in the 26-27 school year. A fourth school, Golden Hill, will feel this impact somewhat later.
Students from the affected schools will now be directed to Bell Middle School, which will see a significant enrollment increase. From an almost 500-student influx, it will grow to nearly 1,200 students, a stark contrast to the 900 students it hosted a decade ago, as reported by Voice of San Diego. This contrasts with schools north of Interstate 8, such as Clairemont’s John Muir Language Academy and Mission Hills’ Grant TK-8, which will retain their K-8 structures.
The restructuring is based on performance data, and more details about the decision are expected to be shared in further district discussions. However, the change is already beginning to generate tension, since the communities were not consulted before the announcement; even the teachers at the schools set to be restructured were left out of the initial conversations, Voice of San Diego highlights a pattern of decisions made by district officials without stakeholder input.
