Original Research by School Decision on Encore Jr./sr. High Sch for the Perf and Visual Arts Dist
Encore Jr./Sr. High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, which operated as its own single-school district in San Bernardino County serving grades 7 through 12, permanently closed on January 9, 2025. The school no longer admits students, and the district effectively ceased operations.
The closure came after the school's volunteer board voted to surrender its charter and cease operations, citing financial challenges and declining enrollment. The school's enrollment had fallen from a previous peak to around several hundred students by the time it shut its doors. The sudden mid-year closure displaced all remaining students, who were transferred to other area schools, primarily Hesperia Unified School District or their district of residence.
Before its closure, Encore served a student body that was majority Hispanic, with substantial representation of Black students and white students as well. The school was designed as an arts-focused educational program, emphasizing performing and visual arts within a traditional academic structure. The enrollment was small for a 7-12 district, distributed across the six grades it served.
Among San Bernardino County's districts, the school had operated with a chronic absenteeism rate that sat below the median, and per-pupil current spending in the middle range on the lower half of the county's distribution. State assessment proficiency data and graduation rate information were not available in the public record, likely reflecting the small size and specialized nature of the school.
For families who were enrolled at the time of closure, the immediate challenge was finding alternative placement mid-academic year. The school's closure also ended access to its particular program model, which combined arts instruction with core academics for students in the middle and high school grades. That pathway is no longer available in the form it took at Encore.
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