The gist
The PISD board of trustees received an update on transition plans for students, families, staff and facilities impacted by the upcoming closures of Armstrong Middle School, Carpenter Middle School, Davis Elementary School and Forman Elementary School during its Oct. 22 work session.
According to a staff presentation, priorities for the transition include engaging impacted students and families, retaining highly effective staff impacted by closures and reassigning bus routes for eligible students.
Staff also laid out specific plans in the following areas:
- Moving the Regional Day School for the Deaf from Davis to Harrington Elementary
- Transfer guidelines for impacted students
- Packing and moving for teachers and staff
- Safety and security adjustments
- Planning legacy committees to honor the history of the closing campuses
Current enrollment at the four closing campuses is as follows:
- Armstrong: 564 students
- Carpenter: 507 students
- Davis: 329 students
- Forman: 542 students
Bowman, Haggard, Hendrick, Murphy, Otto and Schimelpfenig middle schools are set to receive new students as a result of the closures. Boggess, Dooley, Harrington, Meadows, Memorial, Miller, Saigling, Schell and Stinson elementary schools are also set to receive new students as a result of closures and boundary adjustments.
The full list of boundary adjustments can be found online.
The action taken
The board of trustees also approved an interlocal agreement with the city of Plano, which outlines the process to sell Armstrong, Davis and Forman to the city following the 2024-25 school year.
PISD Deputy Superintendent Johnny Hill said that all four buildings are set to be demolished. Armstrong, Davis and Forman will then be sold to the city, while Carpenter will be held by the school district.
According to the agreement, the sale must be completed by August 2025. The district and city will both receive separate appraisals on the property and draft a sales contract based on “fair market value,” Hill said. Hill added that the board of trustees will then have final say on the sales contracts.
“We can take these community assets and ensure that they continue to be community assets,” trustee Lauren Tyra said.
The board of trustees approved a declaration of surplus properties for the three campuses during its Sept. 17 meeting.
What parents should know
The window to apply for a school transfer within the district for the 2025-26 school year will open on Jan. 6, with students impacted by school closures set to receive priority on transfer applications.
Students who are set to transfer to a different school due to boundary adjustments, but would like to stay at their current campus, will still need to apply for a transfer for the 2025-26 school year, and will receive top priority, according to the presentation.
A full breakdown of transfer guidelines and priority can be found on PISD’s website.
Transfer applications received between Jan. 6-27 will receive a decision by the end of February 2025, while families who apply after Jan. 27 will not receive a decision until June.
Transportation will also continue to be provided to all students who live outside of two miles from their campus. The district’s route finder can be found online, and will be updated for the 2025-26 school year by July or August, according to the staff presentation.
What else?
Several accommodations are being made to prepare Harrington to house the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf, which is currently at Davis.
The Harrington site plan updated to include the following additions:
- A new 60-space parking lot
- Adjusted drop-off and pick-up locations
- “Deaf Children at Play” signs on surrounding streets
- New synthetic turf playgrounds to replace existing upper and lower unit playgrounds
- Four classrooms for every grade level from Kindergarten through fifth grade, plus one deaf education classroom with operable partition
- Four Pre-K classrooms with activity rooms
- One deaf and special education classroom
- Acoustical improvements to corridors, gym, cafeteria, PACE, art and music classroom
- Potential library renovation for more flexible learning
- Wayfinding graphics throughout the campus
- Visual alert and notification system
- Technology enhancements for accommodations and accessibility
“One of the biggest challenges that we're facing right now is how to not only make [Harrington] where it can take on the program, but how can we enhance it and make it better,” Hill said.
How we got here
The board of trustees approved the closure of the four campuses in May, following a months-long process to evaluate “building and property efficiencies.”
District officials cited decreasing enrollment as one of the main reasons for school closures. PISD’s enrollment has declined every year since its peak of 55,700 students in 2012. The district’s enrollment was 47,800 in the 2023-24 school year.
PISD officials have attributed declining enrollment to several factors, including home costs in the city. The median price of homes sold in Plano was $287,000 in 2015, while that number was $517,500 in August 2024, according to data from the Collin County Area Realtors.
District officials have also cited growth in northern districts with lower housing prices as well as a decrease in birth rates as contributing factors to declining enrollment.
PISD also approved a $35 million shortfall for fiscal year 2024-25 in May. District staff estimates that the closures will save more than $5 million.
What’s next?
Additional recommendations related to schools that feed into Plano West Senior High School will be presented to the board in December.
No recommendations were made regarding the west cluster in May due to the area’s already high capacity and unpredictable growth. Any approved changes in the west cluster will also be implemented at the beginning of next school year.
