Education reporter Jakob McWhinney recently brought San Diego Unified officials a seemingly straightforward question: how many students can each district-run school serve?

The question was part of a thread he’s been following for months. Thanks to falling birth rates and the region’s high cost of living chasing families away, San Diego Unified’s enrollment has decreased by nearly 14,000 students over just the past decade. That’s an about 13 percent overall decline. State officials project that the decline will worsen in coming years.

But what has that meant for the district’s schools? Officials at districts like South Bay Union, which was hit by massive enrollment declines in recent years, have had to take the heartbreaking step of closing some schools.

How many San Diego Unified school

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