Not too long ago, Jefferson Elementary was among North Park’s unhippest spots with locals.

The aging school was lacking in both academic performance and curb appeal. Resident families — particularity white and more affluent ones — chose to bus their children out of a neighborhood they otherwise loved.

These days, Jefferson is enjoying a resurgence among North Park’s young families. The school’s revitalization is part of a an emerging movement that is slowly starting to reverse a decades-long trend in the San Diego Unified School District of families forgoing neighborhood schools for far-flung magnets, charters and better-rated campuses.

With the district’s school choice deadline on Sunday fast-approaching, Jefferson has booked a dozen parent tours this week as families shop for schools.

“We are trying to keep up with the neighborhood that has been revitalized… especially since North Park is now one of the hippest neighborhoods in the country,” said Principal Francisco Morga, jokingly referring to the 2012 Forbes Magazine article that listed North Park as one of the nation’s “Hippest Hipster Neighborhoods.” 

“It’s been a journey. We have worked with the community very closely.”

Just three years ago, 39.8 percent of Jefferson’s students were from its attendance boundaries in North Park. This year, 46.6 percent of the students are local.

“It’s good for the community to have resident children attend the school — they can walk to school and they are part of the community,” said Morga, who was hired as principal about six years ago when the school adopted an International Baccalaureate curriculum that feeds into Roosevelt Middle and San Diego High schools’ well-regarded IB programs.

San Diego Unified’s school choice program has been ranked among the best in the nation. The Brookings Institution and the Broad Prize in Urban Education (the district was a finalist for the award in 2013) cited the district’s program as top-notch.

Yet San Diego Unified has been working to scale back its elaborate choice system that was built as an answer to the 1970s court-order to desegregate schools. The goal is to appeal to families by ensuring that every neighborhood has a quality school by 2020 — eliminating the need to commute across the city for a good education.

“Our strategy has been not to limit choices but to open up the neighborhood school as a likely choice for families,” said San Diego school trustee Richard Barrera. “What the data are showing, is parents choosing their neighborhood school is not going to happen on its own. The district should be supporting a school in developing programs that are attractive to the community — that’s what’s happening at Jefferson.” Continue reading on U-T San Diego…