McNeil Elementary students Abigail Sinsuat (left) and Alex Monpremier begin classwork at the start of a school day. McNeil is one of three elementary campuses that will close later this year as part of a district facility repurposing plan. (Shelbie Hamilton/Community Impact)
Students at Eddins, McNeil and Wolford elementary schools will be among the last classes to walk the halls this spring before McKinney ISD moves forward with school closures following the 2025-26 school year.
District officials cited financial strain and changing enrollment trends as the driving force for repurposing the campuses, which were recommended for closure by a committee of 39 MISD parents. As some community members expressed concerns about the facility repurposing process and outcome, MISD officials said they are working to ensure students and families impacted by campus closures and new district-wide attendance boundaries are supported through the upcoming transition.
“Priority No. 1 is taking care of our students and our staff that are going to be in transition,” Superintendent Shawn Pratt said.
The specifics
When district officials began a strategic planning process in 2023, the district faced a $23 million budget deficit, Superintendent Shawn Pratt said. Cost saving measures including budget decreases, master scheduling and select staffing reductions were implemented throughout the district, said Dennis Womack, assistant superintendent of business operations.
MISD also introduced new revenue sources, including the open enrollment Choose McKinney program and child care programs, but ultimately the district still needed to reduce costs through facility efficiencies, Womack said.
The district’s elementary enrollment has also seen a slight decline in the southwestern sector and is expected to continue declining in coming years, according to district documents.
The $3 million in cost savings expected from the campus repurposing plan accounts solely for labor costs. Womack said across the three campuses, there are about 130 staff members, of which about 75 are expected to follow their campuses’ current students to their new schools. The remaining staff members will be able to fill positions that are created through attrition at campuses across the district, Womack said, noting that the district sees 15% to 17% attrition annually, which creates about 300 open positions.
“Where the savings comes is, we’re not going to create a new position. We will actually remove that position that’s open ... and put one of these people into that,” he said.
District officials also announced in November that staff displaced by the campus closures will be guaranteed a role within the district for the next school year. Transition planning and communication is underway by the district for affected students and teachers.
Eddins Elementary PTA President Liz Hurst said she is glad to see most of Eddins Elementary moving to another campus together, but the school is farther than the in-neighborhood Eddins campus.
“Some of the Eddins culture will move with us to the new building, which is great ... My sadness around it is the loss of independence my kiddo is going to have,” she said, noting that the school her child will attend is now just under 2 miles from their home.
Hurst, along with other community members, expressed concern for the process and timeline used for the Educational Facilities Alignment Committee, or EFAC. The 39-person committee of MISD parents met four times from Sept. 30 through Nov. 4 to decide which campuses to recommend for closure, and four more times from Nov. 11 through Dec. 9 to determine their recommendation for new attendance boundaries.
Elementary attendance boundaries across the district have been updated for the 2026-27 school year. (Source: McKinney ISD/Community Impact)
The context
The repurposing plan comes after years of strategic planning work by district officials and committees of over 200 community members.
The EFAC was tasked with evaluating the 13 identified elementary campuses being considered for closure based on various metrics, such as enrollment, building age, building capacity, geographic location, redundancy and financial efficiency.
Danielle Stafford, McNeil Parent Teacher Organization president, served on prior committees, which she said prepared her to see campus closures happen “pretty rapidly,” she said.
“I have seen the population dwindle in that building. ... I knew that there was opportunity,” Stafford said of McNeil being repurposed.
MISD’s student enrollment saw rapid growth in the late ‘90s and into the 2000s before peaking in 2017 with 24,300 students enrolled, according to the district’s website.
How we got here
Fall 2023-early 2024: Strategic planning efforts by district and committee
Fall 2024-spring 2025: Long Range Facility Planning Committee work underway
Sept. 15, 2025: Educational Facilities Alignment Committee created
Nov. 5, 2025: Trustees vote to repurpose three schools based on EFAC recommendation
Dec. 15, 2025: Trustees approve new attendance zones based on EFAC recommendation
August 2026: New attendance zones effective for the 2026-27 school year
What they’re saying
“It was a painful process, but we absolutely knew ... for the long-term sustainability of McKinney ISD, that it was the right thing to do,” Pratt said.
“There’s a million ways this could have been handled so much better. ... The silver lining is it has brought a fight into these parents, into making real changes within McKinney ISD and the school board,” Wolford parent and PTA member Nikki Steitle said.
“Kids are going to get the opportunity to meet even more amazing teachers and have the full impact of a fully staffed, supported building,” Stafford said.
“We moved back to go to Eddins. [That was] taken away from us, in my thoughts, without due process, without transparency,” Eddins Alumni Charles Parker said.
Looking ahead
Some elementary campuses are expected to see student populations that approach facility capacities, but currently empty classrooms are expected to be used as students and teachers join new campuses. Average elementary class sizes are expected to remain between 18 to 22 students, with 22 being the largest elementary class size permitted by the Texas Education Agency.
“There will be growing pains, maybe the carpool line,” MISD trustee Stephanie O’Dell said. “But there was a time when all of those schools were full and that was normal.”
Pratt said he doesn’t anticipate additional facility closures will be needed based on the cost savings gained from the three-campus repurposing plan.
“We don’t want to go through this again, and three [campuses] was the number that we felt would sustain us for a number of years,” Pratt said.
How the facilities will be repurposed has not yet been determined as district officials are prioritizing the transition process for students and staff, but a plan is expected to be created prior to the end of the school year, Pratt said.
"We're doing everything that we can as a district to make this a smooth transition for our students, without the distraction of 'What are we now going to do with the three campuses?'" MISD Trustee Ken Ussery said. "That is going to come up and we're going to need to cross that bridge when we get to that bridge but that's not what is important right now. ... We're so focused on making sure that our students are taken care of and as we get through this transition, then the focus will change and we'll have to take a close, close look at those facilities and how best to use them and still achieve the financial goals that we have before us."
