Budget shortfall forces decision
The Inglewood Unified School District will close five campuses, 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 on 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.,
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 remains in state receivership. There are debt payments on a $29 million bailout the state provided to keep the fiscally mismanaged district afloat in 2012.
