RICHARDSON, Texas — Richardson ISD board members voted to approve its plan to close four elementary school campuses and repurpose one pre-kindergarten campus on Thursday night
District staff say they’re in a big budget deficit, that the district has lost more than 2,500 students since 2019 and hasn’t received more state funding per student since before COVID-19 despite inflation.
In February, the district announced its plan to close those campuses: Greenwood Hills, Springdale, Spring Valley, Thurgood Marshall and Dobie. Staff said those closures would save the district close to $11 million.
In addition to the students at those five schools who will need to switch campuses, several students at other schools will also need to relocate as the district evens out attendances.
Under the plan, 113 students who attend Dartmouth Elementary, for example, would have to move to Yale Elementary.
Furious families from that school specifically showed up to the board meeting, where parents and their children begged to not be relocated to new, further away schools, separating these kids from their friends and teachers.
Following those public pleas, the board made a slight adjustment to its rezoning plan for Dartmouth specifically. Instead of 113 students, only about 90 will be sent to news schools.
But that change did nothing to comfort those families. Parents booed and yelled at the board members as they voted to approve the plan 7-0, before exiting angrily. Those families were frustrated there wasn’t more discussion about Dartmouth during the board’s discussion of the plan on Thursday, and also said they wish they’d been included more in the discussions leading up to the vote.
Board members said they plan to have counselors and campus ambassadors in place to help relocated students adjust to their new schools, and stressed how many other districts are dealing with the same problems.
“We have a fifth-grader who he’s been here at Dartmouth for his entire elementary school career, and I actually grew up in Richardson ISD as well," RISD parent Pamela Hughes said.
Hughes is part of a community campaign in the Duck Creek neighborhood to fight back against how the remaining schools will be zoned.
“Totally understand the difficult position the district is in in terms of the budget. But I was shocked when I saw the line through Duck Creek," she shared.
RISD has lost more than 2,500 students since 2019. The district tells WFAA that 85% of those students are Black or Hispanic.
In December, WFAA's Chris Lawrence sat down with RISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum to discuss the state of the district.
"We are having to, now, on the heels of that deficit budget, we have formed a community based steering committee," Branum explained during that interview. "They have been working for nearly six months getting recommendations around how do we find deficiencies? How are we going to address this deficit budget?”
The schools closing under Project RightSize range from 63% to 98% economically disadvantaged and 75% 96.5% minority student population.
For students impacted by this, Hughes said she believes “they’ve gotten to see their parents and their neighbors really come to bat for them.”
When asked what happens next, if this plan moves forward, Hughes said “next stop is a great question. I think that’s varying a little bit family by family.”