Across North Texas, school districts are looking to the fall school year with a shared concern: As student enrollments drop, budgets are getting tighter. For Fort Worth, Richardson, Irving and Plano ISDs, low enrollment has led to discussions of campuses being shuttered. In Dallas ISD, a newly approved budget will result in hundreds of central and campus-based positions being cut in the next school year.
The Dallas ISD board approved a $1.9 billion budget during a May 23 meeting, which will simultaneously raise teacher salaries across the district while cutting more than 600 on-campus jobs and more than 200 central-office or administrative positions. The “much needed raise” will bring the district’s average teacher salary to $70,000, district personnel told the board.
While the decision to cut jobs was an “absolutely hard” one to make, trustee Ben Mackey said, conservative planning by the current and previous district superintendents has put Dallas ISD in a better financial position than many surrounding districts.
“We have to make some cuts, and we are doing it in a responsible way,” Mackey said. “We are not closing schools. I think something like three-fourths of Texas districts are adopting shortfall budgets and deficit budgets. A ton of them are closing schools and having to do it on a fast timeline. We have the luxury of not doing that.”
According to Texas Standard-KUT Austin, declining birth rates and students moving to charter schools could be factors in falling school enrollment numbers. Federal assistance given during the COVID-19 pandemic has also dried up, and in some areas, high housing costs could be pricing out families.
Those lower enrollment numbers are causing budgets to shrink; across the state, campuses are funded based on a per-student basis, taking into account each student’s day-to-day attendance. In Dallas ISD, the new budget was drafted with the expectation that the district will have 1,700 fewer students for the 2024-2025 school year than it did the year prior, The Dallas Morning News reports.
Districts Closing Campuses
In Richardson ISD, a $28 million budget deficit spurred by low enrollment numbers is resulting in four campus closures. RISD expects to lose more than 3,500 students in upcoming years after already being down 2,600 students from pre-COVID enrollment, Superintendent Tabitha Branum told the district’s board last week.Greenwood Hills, Spring Valley, Springridge and Thurgood Marshall elementary schools were all approved for closure by the RISD board. Officials said the plan will save the district more than $10 million a year.
Four schools in Plano ISD — Forman Elementary, Davis Elementary, Armstrong Middle and Carpenter Middle — are recommended for closure. Parents of students at those schools were notified May 21 of the potential closures, although the PISD board has not yet moved forward with a vote.
Fort Worth ISD is consolidating two campuses, Wedgewood Sixth Grade campus and Wedgewood Middle School, starting in the fall. Additional school closures could be come in the next year, according to the district.
“It is no longer feasible to operate an entire campus for one grade given the district’s current and projected enrollment. The consolidation is expected to have minimal impact on staff, who have been notified of the change,” the district said in a statement.
Irving ISD voted to close two elementary school campuses at the end of this year for the same reasons as the other districts: falling enrollment and budget shortfalls. The district is closing Britain and Elliott Elementary Schools, which sat at 45% and 50% classroom capacity, respectively.
“Although this is not an easy decision, the reasoning behind it is simple,” trustee Lisa Lobb said in December. “With losing 4,000 students in our district over recent years, we are receiving millions of dollars less in money.”
