The San Diego Unified School District’s five campuses in La Jolla are unaffected by a district process that parents at several other schools around the district say is transferring away valued teachers from their children’s classrooms.
The district says forced teacher transfers are sometimes necessary to align staffing with declining enrollment and that they aren’t unique to San Diego Unified.
Before each school year, SDUSD projects enrollment at each school and assigns teachers based on those projections. On the third Friday of the school year, in early September, the district collects enrollment data to see how many students actually signed up for each school and grade level.
Then San Diego Unified adjusts how many teachers are allocated to each school based on the actual enrollment. In some cases, fewer students show up than the district projected.
So if a school enrolls fewer students in a particular grade level than the district projected, the district may transfer one or more teachers away from the school to fill vacant positions elsewhere in the district. Unless a teacher volunteers, the teachers with the least seniority are required to transfer.
Several parents in the district said they learned about the reassignment of their children’s teacher within the past few weeks and that the transfers are happening in mid-October. Some parents said having the transfers happen so late in the school year significantly disrupts students’ learning and emotional well-being.
In La Jolla, the principals of all five local SDUSD campuses told the La Jolla Light that their schools have not had any teacher transfers related to enrollment this school year.
La Jolla High School Principal Chuck Podhorsky said the school has 1,224 students enrolled for 2023-24, an increase of 24 from last school year.
At Muirlands Middle School, Principal Jeff Luna said enrollment is 695, more than the district’s projection of 680, though slightly less than the 699 enrolled in 2022-23.
Torrey Pines Elementary School’s enrollment for the current year is 452, slightly less than last year’s 458 but enough to prevent any teacher loss, Principal Keith Keiper said.
La Jolla Elementary School Principal Stephanie Hasselbrink said the school is at 526 students, which beat its projected enrollment of about 500. She noted that the school’s student numbers have been trending up in recent years. Last school year there were 501 and the year before there were 440, she said.
At Bird Rock Elementary School, Jim Solo — who is sharing interim principal duties with Chris Hargrave and Jamie Jorgensen — said the campus has increased enrollment to 418 for 2023-24, up from about 375 last school year.
Though parents at schools elsewhere in the district that have been affected by teacher transfers acknowledged declining enrollment, they said the district is adjusting staffing much too late in the school year — which began in August — and weeks after officials learn schools’ actual enrollment.
San Diego Unified Superintendent Lamont Jackson acknowledged that the enrollment and teacher transfer process causes “some consternation” and disruption for students and families. He said the district will work on moving up the timeline for reshuffling teachers in the future.
“We will work with our labor partners and central office staff to make sure we are reviewing, improving and refining this process,” he said. ◆
