Five Inglewood schools set to close, county officials say
After weeks of controversy, the Inglewood Unified School District has announced that they will permanently close five schools in coming years.
In a video shared on the district's YouTube page, Inglewood County Administrator Dr. James Morris disclosed that the following schools will be shutdown:
- Crozier Junior High School
- Hudnall TK-6 Elementary School,
- Highland TK-6 Elementary School,
- Morningside High School,
- Kelso TK-6 Elementary School.
Crozier Junior High will go through a phased closure to allow the current seventh graders time to finish eighth grade next year, and Kelso Elementary will be relocated to the Daniel Freeman/Warren Lane Elementary site, which was previously closed in 2022.
The other four schools are slated to be closed by the end of the 2024/25 school year.
District officials say that the schools are being closed due to a decline in enrollment over the last two decades.
"Simply put, we're operating more schools than we can afford to operate," Dr. Morris said. "We need to close some schools to remain competitive, improve instruction and repair the schools that will stay open."
In 2002, IUSD had 18,000 students. In the next decade, they believe their enrollment numbers will drop by about 60% to 6,900 students.
"These are not easy decisions to make, but the time has come to make decisions," Dr. Morris said.
Parents of students have gathered to fight the looming decision in recent months, most recently protesting outside of the school district offices on Wednesday after the news was announced.
This is a developing story. Check back for details.