Shirley Shepler loves walking her kindergarten-aged grandson from Northside Elementary to their home across the street. Starting next school year, that's all going to change.
"It's very frustrating because the school board made this decision without a lot of input from the community and I believe that that's where they went wrong," Shepler said.
DeSoto ISD plans to close the school for two years due to low enrollment. It's just one of the moves the cash-strapped district hopes will make up for millions of dollars in shortfalls.
Students will move to either The Meadows or Ruby Young Elementary.
Both have student to teacher ratios of 17-to-1, already over the state average, according to greatschools.org.
"That's frustrating because I don't know how they're going to absorb those teachers into those other two schools. Those other two schools are packed," Shepler said.
In addition to other cuts, like the International Baccalaureate program, more than 150 teachers are expected to lose their jobs. The years of mismanagement leading up to this, have caused some longtime residents to lose faith in DeSoto ISD.
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"It just doesn't change. They don't learn, they keep doing the same thing and expecting a different circumstance, but it's not gonna happen," said Al Brentlinger, who lives near Northside Elementary.
He and his wife have lived in the area for 40 years. Their son went to Northside.
"They should have an outside group in audit and get it corrected, not leave it up to the system," Dorothy Brentlinger said.
In February, new superintendent D'Andre Weaver assured NBC 5 of his plan to turn things around.
"We're honest, we're ethical and we want to do the right thing for children," he said at the time.
This month, he's updating parents about the process online.
"Difficult times require difficult decisions and, while uncomfortable, these actions are necessary for the long-term health of our organization," Weaver said in an online video post.
"My concern is property values and this family, they just moved in over the summer and their plans were for their child to go across the street to school," Shepler said.
For now, this grandmother said she planned to start a petition. She's holding out hope for a change of heart.
DeSoto ISD is hosting a school community town hall on Thursday, April 25. It's at 7 p.m. at the Belt Line Conference Center. The school board said it planned to make decisions about employment at its meeting on April 29, giving some employees more time to resign or retire.
