Editor's note: To view this story as it appeared in Community Impact's April Pflugerville-Hutto print edition, click here.
As Pflugerville ISD faces a projected $18.3 million budget shortfall in 2026-27, district officials are looking at ways to reduce current and future shortfalls by optimizing operations.
PfISD partnered with education consulting agency Civic Solutions Group last fall to create individual campus profiles, which were used to form 12 draft optimization scenarios.
The scenarios span from closing campuses to rezoning students, repurposing vacant facilities and implementing new school program models.
“With the proposals that have been presented and the projected cost savings, that’s going to allow us to be able to get a plan in place to make sure that the budget is where it needs to be,” Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Land said.
The overview
The biggest budget risk Pflugerville ISD currently faces is its projected fund balance decline, Land said. If no changes are made, the district could see a negative balance in its savings account in the next two to three years. She said the state could intervene to enforce financial accountability oversight.
“What happens when we get to that point is we will no longer be able to make the financial decisions ourselves because that is when [the Texas Education Agency] could possibly step in,” Land said.
To address these concerns, PfISD and CSG created individual campus profiles that take into account operating cost per student, attendance, five-year enrollment trends, the year the campus was built and most recent renovations.
The profiles also include whether a campus met certain priorities, ranging from student achievement and teacher retention rates to building costs and utilization.
Using these profiles, 12 optimization scenarios have been proposed. In May, the board of trustees will vote on which scenarios to implement, if any, between the 2027-28 and 2029-30 school years.
While the yearly financial impact of some scenarios is to be determined, CSG partner Olin Parker said PfISD would save $19.7 million in operating expenses in its first year if all 12 scenarios are implemented.
What are the options?
Twelve optimization scenarios were proposed to address the shortfall and balance enrollment.
- Close four elementary schools and two middle schools
- Redesign Dearing Elementary as a high-performing choice option
- Rezone elementary schools east of Hwy. 130 and all high schools
- Explore new programming at Mott Elementary, Bohls MS and Cele MS
- Eight-period high school schedules
- Repurpose vacant facilities for alternative programming
How we got hereDespite new home construction, Parker said PfISD loses hundreds of students a year, as students leaving the district consistently exceed incoming students, and fewer children are born.
“It’s not unique; it’s a reality that many people are facing,” Parker said.
Data from demographer Zonda Education shows PfISD would have to close the equivalent of three elementary schools and half a middle school, or add as many students, in order to reach an average 75% campus utilization rate in 2027-28.
“We want to be clear that this [shortfall] is about enrollment and [average daily attendance], not financial mismanagement,” Chief of Schools Laila Olivarez said.
Breaking it down
Each campus profile indicated whether it met four priority criteria to help form the 12 draft scenarios.
“Advancing student achievement” considered the number of students who met or mastered state testing, while “student persistence” considered the attendance and enrollment decline.
The “investing in people” category considered teacher retention rates, participation in the Teacher Incentive Allotment program, and campus climte surveys. The “finance and operations” category considered the building utilization and capital investment over the last decade.
Per the results, four campuses met all four priorities, 10 met three, six met two, nine met one, and four did not meet any.
What they're saying
Parker said the draft scenarios would place students in higher-quality facilities and campuses with better academic performance. He said districts can become “financially efficient and produce better student outcomes.”
However, Connally High School parent Mike Considine said there is a “pervasive assumption” that students would perform better at some schools compared to others throughout the scenarios.
“The concept of high-performing schools, to me, is offensive because so much of the measurable performance is based on the economic resources that the students at that school have,” Considine said at a community meeting. “This whole idea that we’re going to close bad schools and put the kids in good schools, ... you’re driving parents who look only at measurable school performance as to whether they’re going to send their kids to public school or not, away from public school.”
Next steps
District officials held community meetings March 9-12 and a ThoughtExchange survey from March 5-April 10 to gather feedback on the draft scenarios.
“Unlike some of our surrounding districts who are making decisions now that will commence next year at the start of the 2026-27 school year, we’ve said that we’re going to take a full year to plan and allow families to plan out how this is going to impact them directly,” Superintendent Quintin Shepherd said. “To try to ease the transition for families is key for us because, although this is very hard news, we want it to have a soft impact to the greatest extent possible. That’s why we’re taking a multiyear step approach to this.”
District officials will present updated recommendations based on the community feedback gathered at a May board meeting, where trustees will vote on which optimization scenarios to take.
If all 12 draft scenarios presented were implemented, changes would begin in the 2027-28 school year.
- 2026-27: create task force for approved scenarios
- 2027-28: close Dessau, Parmer Lane, Pflugerville and Windermere elementary schools and Park Crest Middle School, and shift high school schedules from block scheduling to traditional eight-period day
- 2028-29: move early childhood, career and alternative programs to new facilities and close Westview Middle School
- 2029-30: rezone elementary and high schools as needed
