PHOTOS: Budget shortfall hits rural school district

Snow covers the playground as students eat their lunch outside Eastern Sierra Academy in Bridgeport, Calif. The 15-year-old technology-based academy, which has three full-time teachers and one half-time Spanish-language teacher for merely 22 students, has been ordered closed because of the Eastern Sierra Unified School District’s $1.8-million budget shortfall. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

March 7, 2014 12:29 PM PT

Teacher Anthony Pedron, left, tutors Jerrad Vande Brake in Algebra 2 after school at Eastern Sierra Academy, where students are required to master each subject with a “B” or better. The academy does not offer sports or extracurricular activities so students can focus on academics. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Teacher Todd Wanner thinks during a Spanish-language class lecture at Eastern Sierra Academy. Last year, the academy scored 866 on a state Academic Performance Index, above the statewide target of 800. Neighboring Lee Vining High School scored 666. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Cory Forbes, left, and Alek McKee, play a video game after school at Eastern Sierra Academy. The school’s critics point out that a majority of its students are from Bridgeport, Calif., and upscale Mammoth Lakes, 35 miles to the south, even though the Eastern Sierra Unified School District serves 500 students scattered across 3,044 square miles. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Diana Harris, right, studies on the floor while classmates sit at their desks with their laptop computers at Eastern Sierra Academy, a college-prep school designed for high achievers. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Students prepare their lunch in the kitchen at Eastern Sierra Academy, which is housed in twin prefabricated trailers. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Eastern Sierra Academy student Diana Harris crosses Main Street in Bridgeport, Calif., as she walks to school. Students in town who do not attend the academy are taken by bus 45 minutes north to school in Coleville, Calif. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Bridgeport, Calif., is sprawled along U.S. 395 between the snowy Sierra and the deserts of Nevada. Class divisions have fueled a furor over plans to close Eastern Sierra Academy, a college-prep academy in town. The Eastern Sierra Unified School District, facing a budget shortfall of $1.8 million, is considering laying off more than a dozen teachers and closing the 15-year-old academy, among other measures. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Caroline Cooling, 16, a junior at Eastern Sierra Academy, studies at her desk with a view of the Sierra Nevada. Students have their own desks and laptop computers. (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)