The Abridged version:
- Talks of school closures and consolidations in the Sacramento City Unified School District have followed years of steadily declining enrollment numbers.
- Some district schools have annual waitlists while others saw enrollment decline by hundreds of students in recent years.
- Community members say the discrepancies may have more to do with longstanding perceptions than actual school offerings.
- See how enrollment trends have shifted at Sacramento City schools using the data tool below.
The Sacramento City Unified School District has been shrinking since the turn of the century, a trend that has motivated some district leaders to begin considering school closures or consolidations.
In a district with capacity for nearly 55,000 students, only about 37,000 desks are currently occupied, according to Chris Ralston, assistant superintendent of facilities. And even more seats are expected to go empty in the coming years.
Almost a third of the district’s 72 schools are below 50% capacity, Ralston told the school board last month.
Not all schools have taken a hit, though. Some, like John F. Kennedy High, have seen enrollment decline by hundreds of students in the past several years. Others, like C. K. McClatchy High School, teem with students and have annual waitlists. Community members say the discrepancies may have more to do with longstanding perceptions than actual school offerings.
McClatchy past its ‘sweet spot’
Andrea Egan has been the principal at McClatchy for six years and said the school’s growth in that time has not gone unnoticed.
About 2,600 students attended the Land Park school this year, up by about 240 compared to 2019, state data shows.
“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel like there were a lot of students at McClatchy,” she said.
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The school is fully staffed and in compliance with district class size requirements, Egan said. Still, “it’s a big bustling place.”
The district facilities plan listed McClatchy’s capacity around 2,135 students. Egan estimated the school’s “sweet spot” closer to 2,500, meaning it might be growing past what’s ideal, she said.
‘When you build it, they will come’
Families might give a variety of reasons for choosing McClatchy, Egan said, including an accessible location in the city center, competitive sports teams and well-known speciality academic programs.
Part of her administration’s success is offering classes or extracurricular activities that excite students and motivate them to come to school, Egan said.
“When you build it, they will come,” she said.
“And it’s not that I’m trying to grow enrollment,” Egan added. “Because some could argue we’re getting a little crowded.”
Why McClatchy?
As of early May, McClatchy is anticipating a student body of just over 2,600 again next year, Egan said. That includes families living in the school’s attendance zone as well as students who have registered via open enrollment.
Their special programs already have a waitlist for next year.
She said she expects enrollment to either stay where it is or even go up slightly over the summer.
“I don’t have a scientific answer” as to why McClatchy is outpacing many of its district peers, Egan said. And she emphasized her fellow principals are working equally hard, with no easy formula to growing numbers.
“I think parents want to send their kids to schools where they’re going to feel challenged, supported and safe,” Egan said.
“For whatever reasons, people feel that about McClatchy.”
‘The narrative that is hard to break’
Carl Pinkston, local activist, said other schools struggle to retain students due to longstanding biases against certain schools.
“Part of it is historical perception,” he said.
Pinkston said he calls it a “tipping point” — If a student body has above a slight percentage of Black students, “then all of sudden, it becomes a bad school.”
Black student enrollment at Sacramento City Unified fell by about 2,300 students, or 32%, from 2019 to 2026, much higher than the overall 12% rate of decline seen among all racial groups, state data shows.
Luther Burbank and John F. Kennedy high schools are both diverse schools, with Black student populations of about 17%.
The website for Luther Burbank highlights Advanced Placement courses and specialty pathways like a law and social justice program or digital media courses. John F. Kennedy advertises the district’s only AP Capstone classes, a two-year nationally recognized research program.
Yet, Pinkston said, the schools’ programs often fly under the radar with families across Sacramento.
“It becomes the narrative that is hard to break,” he said.
Black students leave Sacramento City at higher rates
Pinkston is a leader in the Black Parallel School Board, an organization formed almost 20 years ago in response to concerns about Black students’ education and experience in Sacramento City Unified.
In 2019, the Black Parallel School Board joined a lawsuit against the district, alleging students of color with disabilities faced discriminatory treatment and discipline. The dispute was settled in 2023 with a five-year reform plan for the district.
Pinkston said he knows of many Black families today still choosing to go outside the district for their kids’ education. They turn either to charter schools, he said, or, if they live in a South Sacramento neighborhood, transfer to Elk Grove Unified.
Elk Grove Unified, Folsom-Cordova Unified and San Juan Unified school districts have also seen Black student enrollment declines, but not nearly as steep as Sacramento’s.
School closures are a yearslong process
The conversation of possible school closures has been somewhat tabled amid the district’s more pressing budget problems — namely warnings from outside experts that Sacramento City Unified may need urgent help from the state.
However, the issue should not sit unaddressed for too long, said board President Tara Jeane in a special meeting last month to discuss potential facility shake-ups.
“We’ve been seeing this for a while,” Jeane said of the declining enrollment data. “And I wonder if we’d had this conversation and started it five years ago, where our budget would be right now?”
Savannah Kuchar is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.
Phillip Reese is a regular contributor, writing Numbers Matter for Abridged.