Helix High School
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Most similar nearby schools
Henry High → Grossmont High School → San Diego Workforce Innovation → Eastlake High School → Granite Hills High → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.5%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~2,585 | +14 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~2,612 | +41 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~2,640 | +69 | $0 |
Straight-line extrapolation of the recent annual rate — a what-if, not a forecast of intent. Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423/ADA). Edit the figure to match your school.
Enrollment stability & demand — 2024-25
Two complementary signals: retention (do students stay once enrolled?) and demand (are families choosing the school?). Read against the San Diego County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.
Helix High School outperformed San Diego County on enrollment (school +2.4% vs. county -7.8%) AND maintains 95.0% stability. Replicable model — worth documenting what's working.
131 of 2,606 students who enrolled at Helix High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (5.0% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.
Stability by student group
Nearest peer high schools
Source: California Department of Education, Stability Rate 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 cumulative enrollees so by-design-high-churn continuation schools don't dominate the bottom of the distribution. Cumulative enrollment counts every student on the rolls during the year, so it can exceed peak-day enrollment.
Chronic absenteeism — 2024-25
Share of students missing 10% or more of expected attendance — the leading indicator that often precedes the demand decline shown above. Families disengaging tend to raise absenteeism first, then formally leave. Basis: grades 9–12.
Low and stable absenteeism — students are engaged and showing up. The leading indicator is healthy.
Source: California Department of Education, Chronic Absenteeism 2024-25. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥100 eligible students. CDE didn't publish a usable 2019-20 file (COVID).
SBAC academic outcomes — grade 11, 2025
Share of grade-11 students meeting or exceeding the California standard on Smarter Balanced ELA and Math. This is the academic-readiness signal that pairs with UC Reach (post-grad outcomes), stability (retention), and absenteeism (engagement). Note: statewide median Math is only ~20% — a school at 20% isn't an outlier; one at 45%+ genuinely is.
Source: California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Smarter Balanced research files. Benchmarks limited to non-virtual public & charter HS with ≥30 tested students.
Student composition — 2025-26
HS grades 9–12 racial/ethnic composition and program subgroups, from CDE Census Day Enrollment. Two-year shift shown when ≥1 pt — surfaces how the community served has changed since 2023-24.
Race / ethnicity
Program subgroups
Source: California Department of Education, Census Day Enrollment 2025-26 (HS grades 9–12). Δ shown when shift is ≥1 pt since 2023-24. Categories below 0.5% omitted.
District financial profile — Grossmont Union High (FY2020)
From 4 years of NCES F-33 filings (the federally-mandated district finance survey). Public schools don't have their own books — the district does. These figures show the financial scale, revenue dependence, instruction-vs-overhead mix, and long-term debt that shape what a school can sustain.
Local: 48.9%
Federal: 13.2%
Source: NCES F-33 Annual Survey of School System Finances (Urban Institute Education Data API). Latest year currently published: FY2020. F-33 is a district-level federal filing — it reflects the Grossmont Union High as a whole, not this individual school's books. Revenue mix shows where the district's dollars come from (state aid dominates in CA via LCFF). Instruction share is current expenditure on instruction ÷ total current expenditure (national benchmark ~60%). Long-term debt is end-of-year outstanding (mostly facilities bonds).
+12.0 pp above peer median (14.9%) · Ranked #1 of 7 similar schools
18.5%
53.3%
26.9%
Higher than 68% of California high schools (1105 ranked, ≥50 seniors)
Helix High School's UC Reach of 26.9% is above the California median (18.5%). The top 10% of CA schools achieve 53.3% or higher.
For context, the elite tier (top 1%) clears 102.7% — a gap of 76 pp from where this school sits.
Overall, Helix High School's UC Reach is higher than 68% of California high schools (1105 ranked).
Helix High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · La Mesa · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Helix High School sits near the top of its similar-school group (ranked #1 of 7): 27% vs. a peer median of 15%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 5 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 2% (616→631 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -2%.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+0.5%/yr); projects to ~2612 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helix High School | Public | 2571 | 26.9% | +2% |
| Peer-group median | 14.9% | -2% | ||
| Henry High | Public | 2532 | — | +20% |
| Grossmont High School | Public | 2221 | 9.1% | -9% |
| San Diego Workforce Innovation | Public | 2929 | — | -3% |
| Eastlake High School | Public | 2585 | 21.3% | -30% |
| Granite Hills High | Public | 2412 | 8.8% | +7% |
| Literacy First Charter | Public | 2110 | — | -14% |
| Steele Canyon High School | Public | 2237 | 14.7% | -2% |
| Hoover High | Public | 1878 | 18.4% | -1% |
| Sweetwater High | Public | 2170 | 15.2% | -25% |
| The O'farrell Charter | Public | 1833 | — | +50% |
UC Reach = top-6 UC admits ÷ senior class (can exceed 100% when students are admitted to multiple campuses). Enrollment trend = first-to-latest grade-12 change on file. Similar schools matched on proximity, size, type. Methodology →
Admit rate vs. CA peer average, by campus ⓘ
How does this school's admit rate at each UC compare to other CA schools whose applicant pool averages the same GPA?
| Campus | Applicant GPA (avg) | Actual admit rate | CA peer avg | Δ | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 4.01 | 8.8% | 12.9% | -4.1pp | On target |
| UCLA | 3.96 | 8.0% | 9.1% | -1.1pp | On target |
| UC San Diego | 3.91 | 22.7% | 21.9% | +0.7pp | On target |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3.90 | 21.1% | 28.4% | -7.3pp | Under |
| UC Irvine | 3.89 | 25.8% | 22.5% | +3.4pp | On target |
| UC Davis | 3.93 | 44.1% | 32.4% | +11.7pp | Over |
Where Helix High School sits vs. all California schools ⓘ
Overall, this school admits its UC applicants in line with what their GPAs predict (21.1% actual vs. 20.8% expected).
UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2025
Class size from CDE grade 12 enrollment. Campus-level data — applicant/admit totals may count a student at multiple campuses more than once.
Campus Breakdown — 2025
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 114 | 10 | 7 | 8.8% | 1.6% | 70.0% | 4.01 | 4.19 |
| UCLA → Elite | 138 | 11 | 8 | 8.0% | 1.8% | 72.7% | 3.96 | 4.25 |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 194 | 44 | 15 | 22.7% | 7.1% | 34.1% | 3.91 | 4.29 |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | 123 | 26 | 3 | 21.1% | 4.2% | 11.5% | 3.90 | 4.30 |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 120 | 31 | 7 | 25.8% | 5.0% | 22.6% | 3.89 | 4.20 |
| UC Davis → | 102 | 45 | 13 | 44.1% | 7.2% | 28.9% | 3.93 | 4.20 |