At a Dec. 15 meeting, PfISD trustees discussed several possible attendance boundary changes for the 2023-24 school year.
The proposed changes would repurpose some of the district's elementary campuses and adjust attendance boundaries to send students who were attending those schools to other elementary schools.
Members of the PfISD attendance boundary committee presented 10 different plans for elementary closings, each of which would see between one and three campuses repurposed. Parmer Lane, Dessau, River Oaks and Pflugerville elementary schools are among the schools proposed for repurposing in the various plans.
Kathy Hickok, the district's director of student data and demographics, said consolidating the district's elementary students into a smaller number of schools would help to minimize the district's operating expenses.
"We've had these discussions over and over," Hickok said. "We have buildings that are not at capacity. It's about efficiency."
Proposed boundary changes could also see some Weiss High School Students moved to other PfISD high schools. Superintendent Doug Killian said the change would keep the district from needing to build another high school.
Killian said the proposed boundary changes are necessary due to a combination of low attendance rates, rising state recapture bills and increased operational costs due to inflation.
"Gas costs us more just like it costs you more, but we're getting no additional money," Killian said. "What's happening is every time your taxes go up, our state aid goes down, so we collect a little bit more locally, and then we lose the same amount to the state."
The committee's proposals at the Dec. 15 meeting were only preliminary options, not final recommendations. The committee will come before trustees again in February with a more concrete set of recommendations for the board to take action on.
Before then, the district will hold several public meetings from Jan. 9-20 where community members can give input on the proposals.
Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the name of the Pflugerville ISD committee presenting the plans.
