Six elementary schools in Ventura Unified School District are being threatened with closure due to steep enrollment drops, underutilized classrooms and tens of millions of dollars in deferred facility maintenance.

The district’s School Closures Advisory Committee, formed in January 2026, has recommended Lemon Grove, Mound Elementary, Poinsettia Elementary, E.P. Foster Elementary, Sheridan Way Elementary and Junipero Serra Elementary are shut before the upcoming academic session.

The move has stirred up concerns among parents and the committee received 33 public comments with different worries during the Oct. 1 meeting.

Tanya Toutz-Hager, a second-grade teacher at Lemon Grove Elementary School, had asked the committee during the Jun. 8 meeting to consider how school closures could affect access to Title I services and create additional challenges for low-income families who may need to travel farther to attend school.

Darcy Duffy, a district parent, had also raised concerns during a Mar. 19 meeting about potential school closure timelines, enrollment data, facility capacity, and special day class program adjustments.

According to the committee’s draft report, accessed by the California Post, Lemon Grove K-8 School requires an estimated $19.7 million in facility needs while the campus is projected to leave nearly half of its permanent capacity unutilized. The school enrolls just 72 students in grades 6 through 8—the lowest among the district’s K-8 campuses.

Mound Elementary School, another school headed towards closure, is the district’s only choice-only school without neighborhood boundaries.

Mound draws students from surrounding campuses experiencing enrollment declines, primarily Elmhurst, Juanamaria, ATLAS, and Poinsettia.

The campus faces a $17.5 million modernization estimate, traffic safety concerns, and carries the highest inter-district transfer count of any elementary school at 46 students.

Poinsettia Elementary School faces an estimated $15.6 million in facility and modernization projects. 

E.P. Foster Elementary and Sheridan Way Elementary present a complex dilemma for the district, as objective data ranks both Westside campuses as top priorities for closure.

E.P. Foster requires an estimated $20.5 million in repairs with a 47 percent utilization rate, while Sheridan Way faces $17.3 million in costs and a 55 percent utilization rate. 

However, closing both campuses would leave a wide swath of Ventura without an elementary school and raise severe equity concerns. Uneasy about picking one over the other, the committee passed the final decision to the Board of Education Trustees, noting that if E.P. Foster closes, Sheridan Way should begin accepting English-speaking students.

Junipero Serra Elementary School requires $24.9 million in facility and modernization work, while campus utilization is projected at 48 percent with portables and 67 percent without.

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Surrounding campuses, including Citrus Glen, ATLAS, and Portola, currently have enough capacity to receive students if the campus is ultimately shuttered.

Roughly 14,400 students were enrolled in the district during the 2024-2025 academic year. The enrollment across schools in the district has decreased nearly 20% over the past decade, according to the California Department of Education and it’s going to go down further. 

Ken Reynolds of SchoolWorks, Inc. had presented the Demographic and Enrollment Projections presentation during the committee’s April 23 meeting, which projected stark enrollment drops across schools in the next six years. 

In 2020-2021, the district faced a $21 million deficit. After recording an overall general fund deficit of $18.65 million in 2024–25, the district projected a total budget shortfall of $11.02 million for the 2025–26 fiscal year, according to the district’s financial reports reviewed by The Post.

While the district continues to face a severe money crunch, the superintendent for the district, Antonio Castro takes home a handsome salary. According to Transparent California, the state’s largest public database of government employee salaries, Castro received a total pay of $374,566 last year.

Ventura Unified runs 28 schools, including elementary, middle, high and alternative schools and operates other educational programs, according to the district website. It oversees a $255.73 million budget.