John J. Cairns Continuation

· Tulare County · Lindsay Unified
Public Tulare County 🏛 Lindsay Unified → CDS 5471993…
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Compare with peers

Most similar nearby schools

Kaweah High → Deep Creek Academy → Tulare Technical Preparatory High → Bravo Lake High → Lovell High → Compare all similar →

No UC admissions data on file for John J. Cairns Continuation.

This school doesn't appear in UCOP's source-school records (it may send few or no applicants to UC). Its enrollment trend and similar-school comparison are still below.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment (9–12)
81 (2018)47 (2026)
-42.0%
Grade 12 (graduating class)
46 (2018)20 (2026)
-56.5%

If this trend holds (-6.6%/yr, Total enrollment)

At per-pupil funding of $ / student:

Horizon Projected Total enrollment Change Funding impact / yr
1 yr (2027) ~44 -3 $0
3 yr (2029) ~38 -9 $0
5 yr (2031) ~33 -14 $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 Tulare County baseline — the demographic tide is moving every CA HS, so a school's gap vs. county is the actionable signal.

Critical
Compounding decline on both vectors.

Enrollment -56.5% vs. county +2.2% AND stability (36.6%) below the county median. Recruitment and retention both under pressure — likely a foundational rather than tactical problem. Chronic absenteeism is also at 63.2% (up +2.3 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.

-56.5%  school enrollment (2018–2026)
+2.2%  Tulare County baseline
-58.7pp  gap vs. county
36.6%  retention (county median 85.8%)
Enrollment — indexed to 100 at 2018
Stability rate by year (raw %)
Stability rate
36.6%
41 of 112 students

71 of 112 students who enrolled at John J. Cairns Continuation this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (63.4% non-stability). Mid-year transfers, dropouts, and other exits are all counted.

Tulare County median
85.8% · school is in the 19th percentile of 31 HS
Statewide median
87.2% · in the 10th percentile of 1,688 HS

Stability by student group

Socio. disadvantaged (104) 36.5%
Hispanic / Latino (103) 38.8%
English learners (40) 42.5%

Nearest peer high schools

Kaweah High 52.8% Deep Creek Academy 53.2% Tulare Technical Preparatory High 25.0% Bravo Lake High 25.5% Lovell High 46.2%

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.

Chronic absent
63.2%
67 of 106 students

Roughly one in three students is chronically absent. A floor this high signals systemic engagement problems beyond what any single intervention can fix.

Tulare County median
17.1% · school is worse than 84% of 31 HS
Statewide median
22.9%
Chronic absenteeism by year (raw %)

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.

ELA — met or exceeded
n = 25
24.0%
incl. 0.0% exceeded
-33.1 pts vs. Tulare County median (57.1%) · CA median 54.3% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 79.3%
Math — met or exceeded
n = 24
0.0%
incl. 0.0% exceeded
-19.2 pts vs. Tulare County median (19.2%) · CA median 21.1% · Top 10% statewide ≥ 53.6%

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

Hispanic / Latino 96% +6.8
Black / African Am. 2%
Not reported 2%

Program subgroups

Students w/ disabilities 87% +6.6

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 — Lindsay Unified (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.

Total revenue
$109.4M
+50.1% since FY2017
Per-pupil revenue
$26,892
4,067 students enrolled
Revenue mix
State: 58.2%
Local: 8.5%
Federal: 33.3%
Instruction share
58.0%
of current spending · $9,594/pupil
Long-term debt
$20.1M
-11.0% since FY2017
Total revenue by year ($M)
Total expenditure by year ($M)

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 Lindsay Unified 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).

John J. Cairns Continuation — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot

Public · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools

  • Senior-class enrollment is down 56% (46→20 from 2018 to 2026), trailing the peer-group median of -28%.
  • At its recent rate (-6.6%/yr), enrollment projects to ~38 by 2029 — about 9 fewer students than today.

Enrollment projection

47 students (2026)
~38 projected (2029)
at -6.6%/yr

That's about 9 fewer students. At per-student funding of $ per student, that's roughly $0 in annual state funding at risk.

Default = California's LCFF base grant for grades 9–12 ($12,423 per ADA) — adjust to your district's actual per-pupil figure. Projection extrapolates the recent annual rate — not a forecast of intent.

Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools

School Type Size UC Reach Enroll. trend
John J. Cairns Continuation Public 47 -56%
Peer-group median -28%
Kaweah High Public 34 -15%
Deep Creek Academy Public 26 -58%
Tulare Technical Preparatory High Public 32 -64%
Bravo Lake High Public 28 -30%
Lovell High Public 61 -27%
Citrus High Public 145 -7%
Earl F. Johnson High (continuation) Public 56 -38%
Loma Vista Charter Public 8 -83%
Oasis Continuation High Public 58 +62%
Valley High Public 67 -22%

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 →

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