With enrollment down to 1 student, SLO County continuation school is ‘hitting the pause key’
Leffingwell Continuation High School in Cambria is is suspending operations due to dramatically declining enrollment, rather than closing permanently, as had been rumored in the district.
That’s according to Jill Southern, superintendent of Coast Unified School District, which serves students from the North Coast, including Cambria and Cayucos.
The continuation campus is adjacent to Coast Union High School on Santa Rosa Creek Road.
“Leffingwell has one remaining student,” she told The Tribune, after starting the school year with five. “We’re not officially closing any school, just hitting the pause key.”
The remaining Leffingwell student is expected to complete their studies in February, Southern said. “Maintaining the site without students simply wouldn’t be a responsible or effective use of our resources.”
Those statements echoed information she’d included in a letter to students and their families, as well as many concerned community members.
“I want to provide clarity and reassurance during this time of change,” Southern wrote in the letter. “Leffingwell has been an integral part of our district, offering a meaningful and impactful educational experience for so many students.”
If enrollment increases there in the future, she said, “We are fully able to reactivate Leffingwell.”
“The California Department of Education has confirmed that we have the flexibility to go ‘dark’ during times of low enrollment and reopen when the need arises,” Southern added.
Leffingwell has many fans, including former students and their families, local businesspeople and community members. That support and affection is most obvious at graduations, when scholarships and awards contributed by locals total thousands of dollars.
“We know there are lots of concerns and emotions about Leffingwell,” the superintendent said. “Everybody knows it’s a very valuable program that has served so many students so well.”
But as is the case with many schools and programs, enrollment doesn’t remain static, but instead ebbs and flows.
Total enrollment has fallen precipitously in recent years after hitting recent highs of 22 students:
- 2019–20: 15 students
- 2020–21: 22 students
- 2021–22: 22 students
- 2022–23: 16 students
- 2024–25: 12 students
- 2024–25: 5 students, with only 1 still attending
Leffingwell supporters reacted quickly
Rumors about the looming closure of the program had been roiling through the district like cooped-up kindergartners heading for recess.
That was especially true on social media, as worried parents, students and other Leffingwell supporters reacted to several posts, including one on Facebook from 2024 Leffingwell grad Maya Mcintyre Romero.
Working six days a week “just to keep a roof over my head and food on my plate … was interfering with my education where I had to put work first and my education second,” she said. “Leffingwell gave me a second chance at success. I was able to balance school and work,” because of flexible school hours and getting credit for working while supporting her family.
Upon graduating, Mcintyre Romero received more than $5,000 in grants and scholarships.
“My success would not have been possible if it wasn’t for Leffingwell. … Alternative education changed my life for the better,” she said.
In one of the more than 80 comments and Facebook reactions to Mcintyre Romero’s post that day, local historian and archivist Melody Coe said, “There may have only been five students this year, but we don’t know that there won’t be 15 students next year.”
The president of the Cambria Historical Society encouraged community members to speak out on behalf of the program.
