This story has been updated.
San Diego Unified met with a group of principals on Friday to make a big announcement: the district will begin phasing out the middle school portions of four of its K-8 schools starting next school year. While the middle school grades will close, the elementary school portions of the schools will remain open.
The schools are largely concentrated in the southeastern corner of San Diego Unified, where schools serve a higher proportion of low-income families. All K-8 schools north of Interstate 8, like Clairemont’s John Muir Language Academy, were spared. Mission Hills’ Grant TK-8 was also spared.
Three of the schools – Audubon, Fulton and Bethune – are located in the Morse High cluster. Middle school-aged students who would have previously attended those schools will now be routed to Bell Middle.
That rerouting would swell the enrollment of the middle school by nearly 500 students, pushing total enrollment to almost 1,200. If that happens, Bell would be significantly larger than it was a decade ago, when 900 students were enrolled at the school.
The fourth school being downsized – Golden Hill – in the district’s San Diego High cluster. It’s unclear which middle school those students will be rerouted to, but the closest San Diego High cluster middle school is Roosevelt.
The plan is to roll the change out in two phases, with the closure of the middle school grades at Audubon, Fulton and Golden Hill slated to begin next school year, and the closure of those grades at Bethune to begin the year after.
The decision was based on performance data, according to a district official who spoke on background. Leaders plan to discuss the decision in more detail next week.
One significant tension point will likely be that this move was made without soliciting input from the communities the schools serve. Not even the teachers who work at the schools set to be restructured were consulted prior to the decision.
Middle school teachers at the impacted schools would have to engage in the bid process to be placed in a new school, though contract language stipulates they’d be granted priority consideration at the middle school’s students would move to.
Kyle Weinberg is the president of the San Diego Education Association, the union that represents San Diego Unified teachers. He wrote in a statement that stakeholder voices should be included in all stages of decision-making processes.
“As union educators, we advocate for shared decision-making in all aspects of schooling, including decisions about school restructuring,” Weinberg wrote. “The well-being of students, families, and educators in impacted school communities should be the guiding value for this conversation.”
It’s not the first time district officials have made big decisions without an opportunity for stakeholder input. The abrupt closure of iHigh, San Diego Unified’s virtual school, to middle and high schoolers, and leaders’ purging of area superintendents both blindsided and frustrated stakeholders.
K-8 Schools in green will remain intact. Those in red will begin to close in the 2026-27 school year. Those in purple will begin to close in the 2027-28 school year.
Sept. 12 correction: The story has been updated to correct how teachers will be relocated.
Sept. 15 correction: This story has been updated to correct that Grant TK-8 is in Mission Hills.
