As RISD faces a $28 million deficit, district leaders say Project Rightsize would reduce spending by nearly $10.8 million.
During Thursday's School Board Meeting, the Richardson Independent School District voted unanimously on a proposal to close four elementary schools and a Pre-K campus to respond to a decline in enrollment and lack of state funding.
District leaders voted 7-0 on boundary adjustments, moving forward with closures and consolidations for the 2024-2025 school year.
Many parents and students walked out in tears. They told NBC 5 they felt their pleas and concerns fell on deaf ears.
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Dobie Pre-K campus and four elementary schools: Greenwood Hills, Springridge, Spring Valley, and Thurgood Marshall will close.
While Duck Creek’s neighborhood school, Dartmouth Elementary, is not part of the list of closures, some parents are were about the boundary changes Project Rightsize entails.
“If we were in a perfect world or an ideal world where funding was not something that we were having to think about in this way, we may not have to have this conversation because we would want to preserve the current elementary feeders as they exist,” said Superintendent Dr. Tabitha Branum.
Stephanie Warren is a parent of two students at Dartmouth Elementary. She said the program would require students to move to Yale Elementary, and in turn, dive and disrupt their tight-knit community.
“We moved here 18 years ago with a vision of what our family was going to be," Warren said. "And it wasn’t moving from to school like we did. It was walking our children to school and from school every day, knowing the names of our neighbors.”
Since late February, Warren has helped spearhead the movement to keep all students at Dartmouth together.
“Don’t divide our ducks,” Warren said. “We created a petition that has 1,200 signatures. Our children have made signs.”
According to the online petition, “Under the proposal, an estimated 113 Dartmouth students would be rezoned out of the neighborhood school to make room for 221 students being displaced by Springridge Elementary’s closure.”
Warren’s children usually have a short six-minute walk to school with neighbors. Now, she said she is concerned about the distance and high traffic part of the new commute.
Warren recorded the walk to Yale Elementary which required her to cross Aparhoe, a major street without school zones or cross guards.
In an email, a spokesperson for the school district stated, “RISD would work directly with the cities of Richardson and Dallas to encourage placement of school zones and crossing guards to ensure the safety of walking students. “
On their website, the school district stated the changes would go into effect as early as the upcoming 2024-2025 school year and help reduce operating expenditures by more than $10 million per year.
During the last several weeks, the district said they have answered hundreds of questions from parents and staff online and during their informational meetings. A final vote is expected to take place Thursday night. However, Warren and other parents who reached out to NBC 5 said the decision feels rushed.
