In Lewisville, the school district is exploring ways to cut costs after projecting a $4.5-million shortfall for the 2024-2025 school year.
On Monday night during a Lewisville ISD Board Work Session, a community committee suggested taking a closer look at the function and future of 20 schools.
A summary of Monday's presentation can be found on the school district's website.
The Community Efficiency Committee was established in May of 2024 by district leaders. According to the school district, more than 50 people including school staff, parents, community members and district leadership make up the committee.
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The committee comes as a step for the district to make the most use of its based-on factors including building capacity and efficiency, staffing, operating costs, facility assessment scores, and student enrollment.
“We have peaked in enrollment in around 2015-16 at 53,000, and over the next ten years, we're forecasted to stabilize at enrollment of about 45,000,” Superintendent Dr. Lori Rapp said. “As we have to face this trend, enrollment trend, one of the things that we thought we would do is, we would gather a community committee together to look at our enrollment trends, to study all of our schools. And so, we created this efficiency assessment with efficiency indicators.”
The list of 20 schools was divided into two groups.
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“There's a group of ten campuses that are in the should considered for boundary adjustments,” Dr. Rapp said.
The goal behind boundary adjustments is to increase the efficiency of schools, according to Lewisville ISD.
Lewisville ISD schools considered for boundary adjustments include:
- Bluebonnet Elementary
- Camey Elementary
- Degan Elementary
- Hebron Valley Elementary
- Memorial Elementary
- Morningside Elementary
- Old Settlers Elementary
- Rockbrook Elementary
- Creek Valley Middle School
- Shadow Ridge Middle School
“There is a group of ten campuses that are in the should consider for school retirement and or boundary adjustments,” Dr. Rapp said.
Included in the “facility retirement” list or school closures and/or boundary adjustments are seven elementary schools and three middle schools.
Lewisville ISD schools considered for facility retirement and/or boundary adjustments:
- B.B. Owen Elementary
- Creekside Elementary
- Ethridge Elementary
- Garden Ridge Elementary
- Heritage Elementary
- Highland Village Elementary
- Polser Elementary
- DeLay Middle School
- Downing Middle School
- Lakeview Middle School
The committee met six times between May and September to visit all 69 Lewisville ISD campuses and analyze efficiency data, the school district said.
“One of the pieces of data that we looked at are, for instance, was the operational cost of our buildings. And one of the things that we know is right now it takes about 550 students in an elementary school, for instance, to cover the operational cost, to pay for the electricity, to pay for the insurance that that building covers, to pay for the basic staff that's needed in that building,” Rapp said. “So, when we talk about being efficient, what that tells us is, any building that's operating below 550 students, for example, would be considered to not be as efficient as it possibly could be. That does not mean that it automatically would be retired or have boundary adjustments. It's just one aspect of the data that we look at to determine, are we operating as efficiently as we can there?”
A full list of operational costs presented by the committee can be viewed here.
The list, Rapp said, is preliminary and will be narrowed down in the weeks to come.
“There are no decisions being made,” Dr. Rapp said. “We will work to study those 20 schools… any schools that will be impacted by any possible decisions, we will go out to those communities, and we will hold listening tours throughout the month of November.”
According to Rapp, a final decision would not be made until sometime in December.
“I would want to assure our families and our staff that we will not make decisions until the communities can be heard. So, our board is very intentional about ensuring that the processes in our district incorporate the voices of anyone who's impacted,” Dr. Rapp said.
According to Rapp, the board will now review the findings presented by the committee and take into consideration feedback from staff and families.
“We want to hear the input from our staff and our families in those areas and be able to use that before decisions are made and that that would be a part of our decision-making process,” Rapp said.
To learn more about the process and function of the Community Efficiency Committee, click here.
