Mountain Empire High School
📄 Shareable scorecard →Compare with peers
Most similar nearby schools
Diego Valley East Public Charter → Learning Choice Academy - Chula Vista → Altus Schools East County → The Learning Choice Academy - East County → Greater San Diego Academy → Compare all similar →Enrollment trend & projection
If this trend holds (+0.3%/yr, Total enrollment)
At per-pupil funding of $ / student:
| Horizon | Projected Total enrollment | Change | Funding impact / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 yr (2027) | ~399 | +1 | $0 |
| 3 yr (2029) | ~401 | +3 | $0 |
| 5 yr (2031) | ~404 | +6 | $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.
Enrollment growth is beating San Diego County (+7.1% vs. -7.8%), but 95 of 448 students didn't maintain continuous enrollment. Why are families leaving once enrolled? Chronic absenteeism is also at 43.9% (up +20.5 pts from 2016-17) — engagement and demand are both signaling decline.
95 of 448 students who enrolled at Mountain Empire High School this year didn't maintain continuous enrollment (21.2% 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.
Absenteeism is up 20.4 pp since 2016-17. A rising absenteeism trend often precedes formal departure — worth investigating which subgroups are driving it.
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 — Mountain Empire 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.
Local: 31.2%
Federal: 17.9%
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 Mountain Empire 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).
Mountain Empire High School — Enrollment & Outcomes Snapshot
Public · Pine Valley · vs. 10 most similar nearby schools
- ▸On UC Reach, Mountain Empire High School sits near the top of its similar-school group (ranked #2 of 3): 12% vs. a peer median of 24%.
- ▸Its UC Reach has risen 4 points since 2018.
- ▸Senior-class enrollment is up 7% (85→91 from 2018 to 2026), outpacing the peer-group median of -14%.
- ▸Enrollment has been growing (+0.3%/yr); projects to ~401 by 2029.
Enrollment projection
Your school vs. its 10 most similar nearby schools
| School | Type | Size | UC Reach | Enroll. trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain Empire High School | Public | 398 | 11.8% | +7% |
| Peer-group median | 23.8% | -14% | ||
| Diego Valley East Public Charter | Public | 408 | — | -70% |
| Learning Choice Academy - Chula Vista | Public | 466 | — | -7% |
| Altus Schools East County | Public | 297 | — | -16% |
| The Learning Choice Academy - East County | Public | 529 | — | +12% |
| Greater San Diego Academy | Public | 196 | — | -23% |
| High Tech High Chula Vista | Public | 628 | 36.4% | -12% |
| America's Finest Charter | Public | 334 | — | -6% |
| Diego Hills Central Public Charter | Public | 301 | — | -54% |
| Jcs Manzanita | Public | 245 | — | -78% |
| River Valley Charter School | Public | 170 | 11.1% | -10% |
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 →
UC Outcomes Trend — 2018–2024
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 — 2024
| Campus | Applicants | Admits | Enrollees | Admit Rate | UC Reach | Yield | Avg GPA (App) | Avg GPA (Adm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley → Elite | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.86 | — |
| UCLA → Elite | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| UC San Diego → Selective | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.62 | — |
| UC Santa Barbara → Selective | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| UC Irvine → Selective | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | 3.88 | — |
| UC Davis → | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |