La Jolla Cluster Association weighs short-term rental impacts

A cautionary e-mail from a parent representing the Mission Bay Cluster, prompted the La Jolla Cluster Association (LJCA) to discuss the ripple effect short-term rentals may have on La Jolla’s schools, during its meeting Dec. 7 at Muirlands Middle School. The LJCA consists of parents, teachers and principals from La Jolla Elementary School, Torrey Pines Elementary School, Bird Rock Elementary School Muirlands Middle School and La Jolla High School.

“The e-mail said there are 1,100 short-term rental properties in the Mission Beach Cluster now. They are worried about losing students … and they wanted us to be aware so we can keep more of an eye on it over here,” reported LJCA president John May. “The issue for them is that families can’t move into their neighborhoods because the pool of available housing has been reduced. Many people are buying houses just to turn them around and rent them short-term.”

He noted that most of the short-term rentals in San Diego are in coastal areas. Another teacher pointed out that when you take housing away from the long-term market, rents for the remaining properties go up due to demand.

Torrey Pines Elementary School principal Sarah Ott commented that with the high number of UC San Diego students with children who are in San Diego only for a short time and who send their children to her school, she is not worried. “We don’t enroll kids short-term, but parents lie and say they are going to be here all year and then leave. But when they try to come back and enroll their children again, we don’t let them. Word is getting out that if you don’t stay for a year, you can’t re-enroll.”

The LJCA took no action on the discussion, presented for information only.

In other Cluster news:

Dashboard live: The California School “Dashboard” that was introduced in April has gone live at caschooldashboard.org

San Diego Unified School District board trustee Mike McQuary explained that it “gives you a chance to look at your school to see how it compares to other schools across multiple majors.” The dashboard chronicles school performance in areas such as absenteeism, suspension rate, English learner progress and graduation rate.

Start times: As part of the effort to have Muirlands Middle School and La Jolla High School begin later in the morning, parent Fran Shimp reported that a survey will go home to parents addressing school start times. It will ask parents whether they prefer no change in start time, a later start once a week, later start every day, and how much later school should start (15 minutes to an hour).

Relationships speaker: The Cluster hopes to get an expert to speak at La Jolla High School in January about healthy teenage relationships, both with peers and romantically. We End Violence director Jeff Bucholtz gave a talk to La Jolla High seniors and Bishop’s School students last year, which was reportedly well received, so the Cluster would like him to return. Shimp explained there will also be a parent component to the event. “It covers everything about healthy relationships and he speaks their language. We did it just for seniors last year and many said he was the most impactful speaker they ever heard.”

The presentation varies by grade level assembly, so what freshmen hear will be different from what seniors hear.

“(Bucholtz) holds a mirror up to the kids and helps them recognize their part in situations. One of the stats he references, is that when a girl has been drinking too much, 1 in 10 of in a group will take advantage of that, but the 9 in 10 that think it’s wrong are the majority and have to be the ones to stand up and help the girl — even though it doesn’t feel that way.” The presentation date will be confirmed as soon as the contract is signed.

— La Jolla Cluster Association next meets 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18 at Muirlands Middle School, 1055 Nautilus St. lajollacluster.com