The school board voted at its meeting Dec. 9 to retire five elementary schools beginning next school year due to declining enrollment and continued attempts to reduce the district’s budget.
The proposal will close one feeder elementary school per high school; Hebron’s feeder school being Polser Elementary School – STEM Academy. The retirements are projected to save the district $2.3 million a year and help accommodate for a decrease in enrollment from 53,000 students in 2016 to a projected 45,000 students next year.
“It has been immensely gut-wrenching to open up any conversation with the community about not having [a] school that families love,” superintendent Lori Rapp said. “It is a really hard reality to share with the community that [LISD] does not have the funding to operate these schools. It has been the hardest conversation I’ve had in my entire career.”
The 244 students currently zoned for Polser will be zoned for Hebron Valley Elementary School, and the 260 transfer students currently enrolled at Polser will have the option to attend either Hebron Valley or their originally zoned school. Hebron Valley parent Claire Walker said she is concerned that increased enrollment will lead to increased class size.
“With bigger class sizes, things will fall through the cracks,” Walker said. “You may not meet the needs of every kid just because you, as a staff member, are not physically able to.”
Prior to the decision, the school board looked at the findings of the Community Efficiency Committee to determine which campuses might be retired. Hebron Valley met two of the four efficiency criterias set by the board and Polser met all four. The district chose to keep Hebron Valley open due to its size and ability to hold more students, and the district said it plans to get the school STEM certified by the start of next school year. Polser parent Justin Lucas, who moved to the district specifically for Polser’s STEM program, said he is worried about the decision.
“I just hope the board is not rushing into these decisions,” Lucas said. “These kinds of decisions will impact the district for years to come, and those impacts won’t all be good.”
For school-wide and grade-level events, Walker said Hebron Valley has to overflow their parking into Creek Valley Middle School across the street. Additionally, due to Polser families being farther away, the number of cars dropping off and picking up students is expected to grow, increasing traffic during the day.
“We haven’t built up to [the size],” Walker said. “It’s just all of a sudden that we’ll be [almost] twice the size. I don’t think it is reasonable to ask our teachers and staff at both schools to do that.”
The school board held a listening tour that consisted of one hearing at every feeder pattern. There, board members shared other budget cuts made this year, such as changes to the middle school schedule and giving no raises to staff members, along with listening to parents.
“[The listening tour] was impactful,” Rapp said. “It was meaningful. It showed the power of public education. I looked in the eye of every single speaker at every single listening tour and saw how much they love their teachers and their schools. That’s the power of public schools, and I don’t think there’s a better example of that than what we saw there.”
A part of the projected $4.5 million deficit for the school year comes from a stagnated basic allotment, the primary mechanism for the funding of public education. Rapp said she plans to continue advocating and working with legislators during the legislative session starting in January.
“[Retiring schools] is not an easy choice to make,” Rapp said. “There are no easy answers, but I have committed to taking care of [the] students and ensuring that our school district survives for many years to come. All I can hope is that [the community] joins with us in advocating so we can emerge from this stronger and more united than ever.”