LAUSD Approved $322.6 Million in Rebuilds. No Closure List Yet.

Enrollment at Los Angeles Unified fell 4.3% through week five, adding a $60-million hole to this year's budget.

Enrollment at the Los Angeles Unified School District has dropped 4.3% through the fifth week of classes, steeper than the district planned for. Officials had budgeted for a decline of about 3.4%, the rate recorded last year, the Los Angeles Times reported. No campus has been named for closure.

For families at the smallest campuses, that's the live question. Last year's state enrollment data, cited by the Times, counted these sizes:

• Glen Alta Elementary in Montecito Heights, 55 students.
• Ann Street Elementary in Chinatown, 71.
• Annandale Elementary in Eagle Rock, 78.
• Hillside Elementary in Lincoln Heights, 96.
• Crenshaw High in Hyde Park, 423.
• Wright Middle School in Westchester, 435.

A vote to hire a consultant to advise on closures was set for the Board of Education's September 15, 2026 meeting. Members never took it up. It was pulled after objections from parent activists and employee groups, the outlet reported.

Superintendent Andrés Chait sent families a districtwide message instead, promising weeks of community meetings. “Our goal is not simply to have fewer schools,” he wrote, adding that the point is stronger ones.

Chief Financial Officer Saman Bravo-Karimi told the board the sharper enrollment drop adds about $60 million to this year's problem. The district is spending $18.4 billion against $16.8 billion in revenue, with reserves covering the gap.

Bravo-Karimi estimated the system stays solvent for roughly two years past the current school year. That projection already counts job cuts expected to top 6,000, in a workforce of about 83,000 last year. The worst case he laid out is a $3.5-billion deficit by June 30, 2029.

The construction hasn't paused for any of it. At the same meeting, the board approved $322.6 million to rebuild four elementary schools in South Los Angeles. They are Menlo Avenue, 93rd Street, 96th Street and 122nd Street.

In June the board approved $496.9 million more for three other campuses. Two of them, Normandie Avenue and 107th Street elementaries, are also in South Los Angeles. The third is Narbonne High in the Harbor area.

The seismic work now in motion is expected to run past $2 billion. It draws on the $9 billion in bonds voters approved in November 2024.

The closest thing to a size test came from Chief Facilities Executive Krisztina Tokes, who told the board the four rebuild campuses all run above the average elementary school. “These schools, the enrollment ranges from 500 to over 700,” she said.

Asked by board member Nick Melvoin how much room the district keeps to cancel or rethink a project, Tokes said projects can come back to the board, but the money is committed once members vote.

The district doesn't have a current plan for which campuses it will close.

Parents have been pressing on what sits under the numbers. Maria Luisa Palma, a community activist and the parent of a recent district graduate, told the Times that L.A. Unified hasn't published the enrollment assumptions or consolidation scenarios underneath its bond spending. Without those, she said, the public can't judge whether the money is going out prudently.

Board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said she raised the same concern about a year ago. She's since been persuaded the approved projects strike the right balance.

Sacramento could move the numbers either way. The California Teachers Association sued on September 15, 2026 over nearly $6 billion the state held back from schools, the Times reported. The withheld money covers the 2024-25 and 2025-26 years, and $1.9 billion of it arrived a year late. The union wants a court to rule such delays unconstitutional.

A win there would send hundreds of millions to L.A. Unified without fixing the shortfall. A defeat for Proposition 3, the proposed permanent extension of a state income tax on high earners, would cost the district hundreds of millions a year.

Chait says the community conversation begins within weeks. The rebuilds are already funded.

Source: latimes.com, retrieved September 17, 2026.