OUSD, Wtf?! Part IV

This is the final installment in a four-part series about the Ojai Unified School District’s ongoing financial crisis.

This story was originally published in the VORTEX on September 11, 2023.

Nine hundred and nine Ojai kids reported to Nordhoff Junior High and High School¹ for the first day of school on August 23.

The addition of the 7th and 8th graders to campus swelled its population to numbers unseen in more than a decade — the last time the school hosted more than 1,000 students was during the 2009-10 school year. In 2005, when I completed high school at Nordhoff (a horrifying near-twenty years ago), 1330 students were on campus — and remember, that was just four grades. 

In total, the Ojai Unified School District (OUSD) welcomed 2,080 students back to the classroom for the 2023-24 school year. According to newly appointed OUSD Superintendent Dr. Sherrill Knox, enrollment declined by 3% from the year prior. The year before (2021-22), student numbers declined by 4%. One t…