Six elementary schools in Ventura Unified School District face closure before the next academic year after a district advisory committee recommended shutting their doors.
The School Closures Advisory Committee, formed in January 2026, has targeted Lemon Grove, Mound Elementary, Poinsettia Elementary, E.P. Foster Elementary, Sheridan Way Elementary and Junipero Serra Elementary. The panel cited plunging enrollment, half-empty classrooms and tens of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance as driving forces behind the proposal.
Tanya Toutz-Hager, a second-grade teacher at Lemon Grove Elementary School, pressed the committee during its Jun. 8 meeting to weigh how closures would affect access to Title I services. She highlighted the added burdens low-income families could face if forced to travel farther for school.
District parent Darcy Duffy had also challenged officials during a Mar. 19 meeting, questioning timelines, enrollment data, facility capacity and how special day class programs would be adjusted.
The committee’s draft report, reviewed by the California Post, sketches a bleak picture of infrastructure needs. Lemon Grove K-8 School alone carries an estimated $19.7 million in facility costs while operating at roughly half its permanent capacity. The campus enrolls just 72 students in grades 6 through 8, the smallest middle-school population among the district’s K-8 sites.
Mound Elementary stands out as the district’s only choice-only school without neighborhood boundaries. It pulls students from surrounding campuses already experiencing enrollment declines, including Elmhurst, Juanamaria, ATLAS and Poinsettia. The school faces a $17.5 million modernization estimate plus traffic safety concerns, and it carries the highest inter-district transfer count of any elementary school at 46 students.
Poinsettia Elementary School needs an estimated $15.6 million in facility and modernization work.
E.P. Foster and Sheridan Way present a more complicated puzzle. Objective data ranks both Westside campuses as top priorities for closure. E.P. Foster requires roughly $20.5 million in repairs and operates at 47 percent utilization, while Sheridan Way faces $17.3 million in costs and 55 percent utilization.
Yet shuttering both would strip a broad stretch of Ventura of any elementary school, triggering sharp equity concerns. Unwilling to choose between them, the committee punted the final call to the Board of Education Trustees. It noted that if E.P. Foster closes, Sheridan Way should begin accepting English-speaking students.
Junipero Serra Elementary carries the heaviest price tag at $24.9 million in facility and modernization needs. Campus utilization is projected at 48 percent with portables and 67 percent without. Surrounding campuses including Citrus Glen, ATLAS and Portola currently have capacity to absorb its students if closure proceeds.
The district’s financial strain extends well beyond crumbling buildings. Roughly 14,400 students enrolled during the 2024-2025 academic year, down nearly 20 percent over the past decade according to California Department of Education data, with further declines projected.
Ken Reynolds of SchoolWorks, Inc. Delivered a Demographic and Enrollment Projections presentation during the committee’s April 23 meeting that forecast stark enrollment drops across schools over the next six years.
The district posted an overall general fund deficit of $18.65 million in 2024-25 and projects an $11.02 million shortfall for 2025-26, according to financial reports reviewed by The Post. A $21 million deficit hit in 2020-2021.
Despite the crunch, Superintendent Antonio Castro received $374,566 in total pay last year, according to Transparent California, the state’s largest public database of government employee salaries.
The committee fielded 33 public comments during its Oct. 1 meeting, with parents airing varied worries about the closure plan.
Ventura Unified runs 28 schools spanning elementary, middle, high and alternative programs, operating on a $255.73 million budget according to the district website.
The Board of Education Trustees will now decide which campuses actually close.