Inglewood Unified will close five schools, including Morningside High School, by the end of the 2024-25 school year in an effort to combat declining enrollment and looming deficits, officials announced Wednesday, March 20.
The school district, in state receivership since 2012, has struggled to retain students, dropping from an enrollment of 18,000 in 2002 to less than 7,000 today, according to state-appointed administrator James Morris. Projections estimate the district will have 65% available capacity by the 2029-30 school year.
“This means that 65% of the seats in our school will be empty,” Morris said. “Simply put, we’re operating more schools than we can afford to operate.”
Under the plan, Inglewood Unified will close Hudnall, Highland and Kelso elementary schools, Crozier Middle School and Morningside High School by the end of next school year. Students and staff from Kelso Elementary will relocate to Daniel Freeman/Warren Lane Elementary, which will reopen as a transitional kindergarten through eighth grade school, Morris said.
Crozier, meanwhile, will stay open for eighth-graders only next year to allow the current seventh-graders to complete their middle school experience.,
“These actions are necessary based upon our current financial picture and enrollment outlook,” Morris said. “I recognize that these planned changes will present challenges but, as a result, Inglewood students will benefit.”
The announcement was met with sadness, skepticism and anger.
“In the 12 years that I’ve been involved, the district has never had a plan to increase enrollment,” said Sherrie Stelik, who founded the Morningside alumni group Friends of MHS with her husband, John. “At this point, the alumni hope that they at least have a plan to preserve our history and our heritage.
“It’s a sad, sad day,” she added.
Though Inglewood has experienced an economic transformation over the last decade — thanks in large part to the arrival of SoFi Stadium and other surrounding investments — Inglewood Unified continues to languish in state receivership, dragged down, in part, by debt payments on a $29 million bailout the state provided to keep the fiscally mismanaged district afloat in 2012.
Since then, residents have witnessed a revolving door of state-appointed leaders who each arrived with different plans and then seemingly left without accomplishing them. The Los Angeles County Office of Education appointed Morris in 2023 with the hope the experienced superintendent could finally guide the district out of receivership.
The district pays $2.1 million in debt payments and other related costs every year as a result of the continued receivership and yet still owes $21 million to the state, according to Morris. Though Inglewood has met 127 of the 155 standards necessary to return to local control, it is unable to score high enough in categories related to “finances and facilities,” he said.
Some of the schools slated for closure sit on extremely valuable property as result of Inglewood’s renaissance. Morningside High School is about a block from the Clippers’ new arena, the Intuit Dome.
Kelso Elementary is across the street from the Kia Forum and SoFi Stadium.
Ernesto Castillo, vice president of IUSD’s Board of Trustees, said he has faith in Morris’ plan, even if it will be unpopular, and that he doesn’t believe the real estate values played a factor in the decision.
“If he made this decision, he made it because it is absolutely necessary for the betterment of the schools and the betterment of the programs,” he said.
Castillo grew up in Inglewood and was in high school when the receivership began. He recalls canceled field trips and missing educational programs.
“Unfortunately, our students are paying for the mistakes of previous administrators and school board members,” Castillo said. “This is going to cause a lot of confusion and mixed emotions for the year to come.”
The funds spent on running half-empty schools will instead help make the district more competitive with its neighbors, he said.
“We can’t compete value wise with some of these other districts,” Castillo said.
Morris described the planned closure as an opportunity to direct more money to each of the remaining facilities. The consolidations will mean the remaining elementary schools will have the same transitional kindergarten through eighth grade system, he noted.
The district plans to invest $200 million to “reconstruct Inglewood High School” into a “breathtaking, brand new, state-of-the-art campus,” Morris said.
Inglewood Unified also will build a new “high school academy” on the City Honors Preparatory School campus to give high school students an additional option, he said. A proposed “education and innovation” hub, built in partnership with the city of Inglewood, will connect all of the high schools to Inglewood’s library system.
Parents will get a chance to reserve seats for their children at new schools later this year, according to the district.