Coronado Unified School District officials say policy changes for interdistrict transfers — students living outside district boundaries who must apply and be accepted to attend Coronado public schools — may happen by May, when they plan to begin accepting pre-applications for the 2026-27 school year.
The policy is looking to honor the district’s commitment to current interdistrict transfer students (IDTs), allowing those in the system to continue as long as they meet the conditions of the IDT contract. At the elementary and middle school, the district is not planning to accept new IDTs except for children of employees who work a certain number of hours with the goal to recruit and retain staff. The district will also include military students among those accepted in these grade levels as requested by trustees.
The high school would accept children of employees following criteria used in lower grade levels, however, it will also accept new IDTs with the goal of enrolling 250 students per grade, including students living in the district. A recommendation from staff says the district would prioritize acceptance for the Coronado School of the Arts (CoSA), its college and career pathways and military-connected students for programs like NJROTC.
A new policy will reduce the number of non-Coronado kids attending the city’s public schools. The policy change impacts 469 CUSD students who are transfers – 17% of the district’s 2,640 total enrollment, according to a district report. If all current transfers continue, and new transfers are permitted for the high school enrollment target, district-wide enrollment is projected to be under the 2,500 threshold in the 2030-31 school year.
During a March 3 board meeting focused on reducing class sizes, Superintendent Karl Mueller said trustees can expect a policy draft next month.
“It’s critical that the board understands next year’s enrollment is not going to have an impact on our funding for next school year.” Mueller told trustees. “We currently have IDTs across all grade spans in CUSD and we’re going to have to make some decisions about those students.”
The change in guidelines is occurring because the school district is scheduled to adopt a new funding formula known as Basic Aid, relying on property tax revenues rather than state education dollars that are based on daily attendance.
Because Coronado schools will no longer receive full compensation for educating outsiders, the district is contemplating new rules that could reduce the number of transfers, directly affecting class sizes and teacher-student ratios, as well as school programs, sports teams and other extracurricular activities.
“We’re all very excited about the potential of CUSD in the next year to five years,” said Mueller. “It’s going to be a very exciting time for our students in this district.”
New funding
Basic Aid is scheduled to kick in for the 2027-2028 school year, replacing what was known as the Local Control Funding Formula.
Mueller said the district’s new policy looks to limit class size, prioritize student programs, provide professional development opportunities, and attain compensation for staff that’s at or above the average for unified school districts in the county.
During the meeting, Deputy Superintendent Donnie Salamanca told trustees that in basic aid, the district receives the same pot of funding, but more students means less funding per student.
Salalmanca gave the example of $1,000,000 spread between 100 students versus 80 students, with the second option resulting in $2,500 more in spending per student, or $12,500.
According to Salamanca, CUSD’s current policy for IDTs accepts students based on space availability.
Salamanca said currently, priority is given to children of CUSD employees, students enrolling into CoSA, parents working on the island, and siblings of IDT students.
Mueller said the district has ranged from 8%-18% of the district’s total enrollment being interdistrict transfers.
According to Mueller, accepting IDTs has stabilized the district’s budget and helped offset declining enrollment.
Salamanca said among the district’s current 469 IDTs, 78 are military connected, 71 are children of CUSD staff and 38 receive individualized services.
“These are not unduplicated, so you might have… a child of CUSD staff and also military connected,” he said.
Mueller emphasized that the overall goal at the elementary and middle schools is to make classes small.
“Staff is going to recommend that we don’t accept new IDTs to CUSD in grades six, seven, or eight,” said Mueller. “So we’re already going to see a decline or decrease in enrollment…”
Salamanca said this could make new science labs, with additional outside funding, a reality.
“We built these STEM programs, these robotic programs down into the middle school, they still need students there — and our music programs,” noted Trustee Alexia Palacios-Peters.
Mueller said that rather than firing teachers as enrollment decreases, the district plans on attrition, meaning it would likely not refill positions of teachers who resign, retire, or move out of state.
“We don’t want to lose anything that we’ve built,” said Mueller. “We want to keep (Coronado High School), the vibrant pathway, academic institution that it currently is.”
Serving military-connected students
The Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), an independent research center led by university faculty directors, says about 15% of the state’s school districts had moved to Basic Aid funding as of 2023-24. Those districts served 5.5% of California’s public school students.
Last year, the Encinitas Union School District governing board voted to end its participation in the District of Choice program beginning with the 2026–2027 school year, according to its website.
The Carlsbad Unified School District website says it stopped its participation in interdistrict transfer agreements in the 2025-2026 school year.
Trustees Scot Youngblood and Palacios-Peters said they support including military-connected students in TK-8 acceptances.
“I see benefit in continuing to accept (military-connected) students,” said Youngblood. “I’m okay with having an IDT program that’s a little more robust than what’s laid out…”
Trustee Fitzhugh Lee noted the board’s discussion has nothing to do with racial diversity.
“We’re not looking at people’s skin color,” he said. “We’re not trying to achieve some kind of diversity…”
According to Mueller, attendance, grades, and discipline are the factors for interdistrict transfer revocations monitored by site administrators, attendance clerks and counselors.
“Once we start to realize what basic aid is going to mean for us, everything can be on the table,” said Mueller. “None of this is going to happen overnight, … Things are going to happen in progression.”
