The details
Mayor Charlotte Wilcox spoke about how the closure would affect the city.
“Because we're 6.4 square miles, it will impact the city of Highland Village greatly,” Wilcox said.
According to previous Community Impact reporting, at an Oct. 7 workshop, Lewisville ISD trustees reviewed initial results from a districtwide facilities evaluation that identified 20 campuses for further review that could lead to boundary adjustments or, in some cases, facility closures. Highland Village Elementary School was on that list.
Zooming out
Wilcox admonished Texas legislative officials for putting Lewisville ISD, as well as other school districts across the state, in this situation.
“I wish the legislature would fund public school systems like they should,” Wilcox said. “That’s the biggest problem. They’re holding money hostage over this whole voucher talk and they have not raised the allotment per student since 2019.”
The current basic allotment per student is $6,160. To simply compensate for inflation since 2019, which hovers around 20%, school finance experts have said the basic allotment would need to be $7,100.
Zooming in
Wilcox went on to say one of the main reasons why potential school closures are such a big concern is because the city is built out with only 74 acres left to be developed.
“We’re not building new houses and bringing in that type of stuff,” Wilcox said. “We don’t have that opportunity.”
Supporting the resolution, council member Place 7 Brian Fiorenza said there are many considerations to be made both at the city level and with the school district, and a decision to close schools now would be premature.
“There’s too much going on in the legislature,” Fiorenza said. “I think it’s appropriate that we encourage the [LISD] board of trustees to halt this until after the legislative session to see if anything changes financially.”
Besides Highland Village Elementary School, McAuliffe Elementary and Heritage Elementary also serve Highland Village.
