Over 200 individuals have spoken out against the measure at various meetings since the district earmarked B.B. Owen Elementary, Creekside Elementary, Garden Ridge Elementary, Highland Village Elementary and Polser Elementary STEM Academy for closure. At the December meeting, the board continued to review school retirement and boundary adjustment proposals.
“We will not go gentle into that good night. Marginalized families enduring their plight, culturally unaware they can join in this fight. Creekside is our home and we have every right, to join forces as one bright shining light. Minimal deficit does not make this alright, I’m begging you reconsider our retirement tonight," Creekside Elementary parent Andrea Golden-Reed recited.
The details
In the event of school closures, the district would work to maintain jobs for all affected staff and place them into similar roles at different campuses, Superintendent Lori Rapp said. The district can accomplish this because it has right-sized staffing alongside its enrollment decline, meaning it needs all the teachers it has and the space to accommodate them at new schools.
Additionally, special programs like dual language and special education will move should their home campuses close, creating a vacancy for these specialized teachers to fill, Rapp said.
Low efficiency scores were not the only factor in crafting the retirement and boundary adjustment proposals, Rapp said.
The district also had to consider each high school feeder pattern. For example, The Colony High School feeder pattern contained three elementary schools with low efficiency scores, however the district cannot retire three campuses in a single feeder pattern without disrupting it entirely, Rapp said.
"There is not a harder conversation or a reality to face as a community that the decisions that were made during your fast growth period are no longer the reality that you have," Rapp said.
Since the discussions began, many residents have asked the board to delay any school closures until after the 89th legislative session, which begins in January. Rapp said this would provide the district less time for STEM Academy certification, which it would need should it retire a school like Polser STEM Academy and fulfill its objective to certify Hebron Valley Elementary as a STEM alternative.
It would also disrupt placing staff into new schools should the board close schools in light of no additional state funding next year, Rapp said.
What they’re saying
Garden Ridge Elementary parent Kevin Forsberg proposed three ideas to generate revenue that he implored the board to consider before closing campuses, which he emphasized is an irreparable decision.
The first was to add a Discovery Academy at Garden Ridge or a nearby school, Forsberg said. The academy is a tuition-based pre-K program offering full-day care with extended hours. LISD currently offers the program at Hebron Valley, Heritage and Liberty elementary schools and at Valley Ridge STEM Academy.
The Flower Mound area, which houses Garden Ridge, has no centrally located Discovery pre-K programs, but 52 families are on the waiting list, Forsberg said. If half of these families signed up at an $800 a month tuition the district would net around $250,000, over 10% of the $2.3 million projected cost savings from closing all five elementary schools.
The district’s Discovery pre-K programs are not generating "extensively more than what it cost to operate the program,” capping the profit gained from that program, Rapp said.
Forsberg also proposed implementing attendance campaigns similar to Coppell ISD since school districts are only funded based on average daily attendance, which is recorded at 10 a.m. Preventing two absences per student each year could translate to millions in savings, he said. Additionally, Forsberg recommended opening enrollment to families outside the district.
LISD has had an out of district enrollment policy in place for the last few years, and the district has seen around 1,100 of these transfers, Rapp said.
The administration will continue to work on open enrollment and marketing district programs to families outside LISD. However, the district does not have a dedicated marketing team and must work with more limited resources, she said.
Some context
LISD has experienced around 22% inflation and would need the basic allotment to increase around $1,300 per student to have the same buying power it did in 2019. In addition, utility costs such as water and electricity have risen 39% and 61% for the district, respectively, per district documents.
State funding has also not increased since 2019 and the board adopted a $4.5 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year 2024-25. Enrollment decline was one factor that precipitated discussions on school closures.
Officials anticipate enrollment to dip by over 3,000 students in the next decade, according to updated projections from demographer Rocky Gardiner, a consultant with Zonda Education, who presented the data to the board Nov. 11.
The decline can be attributed to a variety of factors from increasing homeschool and private school attendance, virtual school options and fewer apartment options for younger families in Lewisville, Gardiner said.
At the current state funding allotment of $6,160 per student, a loss of 3,000 students would equate to over $18 million in funding loss for LISD.
Looking ahead
The board is expected to make a final decision at a Dec. 9 board meeting and any decision to close schools or adjust boundaries would take effect in the 2025-26 school year.
