After eight consecutive years of declining enrollment at La Jollas Muirlands Middle School, the 2024-25 school year has provided a promising shift in momentum.

Muirlands opened the school year in August with 743 students, outperforming its projection of 695 by nearly 7%. The unexpected growth has granted the school additional resources, according to Principal Jeff Luna.

To accommodate the 48 additional students, the school added sections for math, science, physical education and world language. Also, the San Diego Unified School District granted Muirlands additional funding for staffing, which Luna decided to use internally.

“When I did the staffing increase based on enrollment, I was able to have discussions with the site and the staff that we currently have on campus and we were able to come to an agreement where they would pick up additional sections of work,” Luna said.

Luna enlisted five teachers to pick up courses they specialized in, with some taking on classes during their preparation periods. He said that strategy made more sense than searching for one teacher to teach every subject, which he called a rare occurrence.

“I think it’s gone extremely smoothly — as best as we could possibly hope for — and I attribute all of that to us being able to add these additional sections in-house and not bring people from the outside where there would be an adjustment period and a learning curve for them coming in,” Luna said.

“That helps with the stability of our curriculum and the high level of expectations we have for our kids on our campus and our instruction.”

Luna said the school had a notion that enrollment would increase toward the end of the summer break, when there was a marked increase in walk-in registrations from people new to the area or transferring from another school.

Luna speculated that Muirlands’ recognition on a local and district level may have spurred the higher-than-anticipated enrollment numbers.

In 2024, Muirlands was one of nine San Diego Unified schools named a California Distinguished School by the state Department of Education. It also was described in U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 middle school in the district.

Luna said criteria for those honors include the school’s performance on statewide assessments, campus culture and progress by underachieving students.

State schools Superintendent Tony Thurman (left) presents a California Distinguished School award to Jeff Luna, principal of Muirlands Middle School in La Jolla. (Provided by Jeff Luna)

“Those are really nice accolades to receive, and there could be many reasons, but I would think it has something to do with people giving Muirlands a serious look as far as the programs we offer, the success of our students [and] the opportunities that kids have on our campus,” Luna said.

After reaching 1,076 students in the 2015-16 school year, enrollment at Muirlands fell every year, totaling 696 in 2023-24. Many schools across California struggled to maintain enrollment and attendance rates in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, including several in La Jolla.

On a state level, public school enrollment in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade fell below 6 million in 2023, and the California Department of Finance says it will drop to 5.19 million in the next decade if current trends continue.

Locally, San Diego Unified is staring down a projected $176 million deficit for next school year, partly because of a general decline in enrollment (which affects state funding), higher operating costs and the expiration of COVID relief funds.

On the plus side, Muirlands isn’t the only school in SDUSDs five-campus La Jolla cluster seeing a promising increase in student population.

La Jolla Elementary and Torrey Pines Elementary both saw gains in enrollment this year.

LJES outperformed projections for the third year in a row and brought in 565 students this school year, nearly 40 more than in 2023-24.

Torrey Pines now stands at 467, up from 452 last year.

To better equip La Jolla Elementary for its increased population, the school was allocated a part-time associate principal for the first time in its history.

LJES Principal Stephanie Hasselbrink credited the enrollment growth to post-pandemic recovery and completion of the schools extensive renovation project.

In the 3½-year project, “every single part of the school was touched,” Hasselbrink said, including updating infrastructure, removing portable classrooms in favor of new buildings and enhancing security measures.

“It was super challenging, especially on the coattails of the pandemic,” Hasselbrink said. “I think the construction team and the district did a beautiful job.”

The school now offers two universal transitional kindergarten, or UTK, courses after construction limited classroom space.

Hasselbrink said she expects the three-year enrollment upswing to continue and bring the schools student population to pre-pandemic highs of more than 600.

La Jollas two other SDUSD schools have seen enrollment decline since last year.

La Jolla High stands at 1,180 students this school year, down from 1,216 in 2023-24.

Bird Rock Elementarys current enrollment is 383, a decline from 411 last school year.