Aldine ISD board closes 6 schools with little community pushback

Aldine ISD trustees voted to close six campuses Tuesday, citing declining enrollment, low birth rates and a lack of housing growth in the area.

The move will affect the 2,800 students enrolled at De Santiago and Stovall primary campuses, and Oleson, Smith, Raymond and Eckert elementaries. De Santiago and Stovall are two of 12 primary campuses in Aldine ISD that only serve early childhood, pre-k and kindergarten students which opened in 2018, according to Ashley Brown, the district’s communications officer.

Despite the sweeping closures, the district received little pushback from the community at Tuesday's meeting. While the board voted in favor of the closures, Trustee Viola Garcia voted against all but one closure.

Only one person, Raymond Elementary parent Carolina Perez, offered a public comment before the vote urging the trustees to vote against the closures. 

BACKGROUND: Aldine ISD board will vote on whether to close six schools Tuesday. Here's what to know

“Raymond has had a long, lasting positive impact on all my daughters. Seeing Raymond close down would be heartbreaking for my daughters and me. Please vote no to the closing of Raymond and the six other Aldine ISD schools,” Perez said.

The closure of six schools comes as the district has faced a 20% decline in enrollment over the past 10 years, from a peak of 70,000 students in 2014 to the district's current enrollment of 56,419 students. And the decrease is expected to continue. Demographers project that Aldine ISD will lose another 9,000 students by 2034, officials said. By that point, Aldine’s enrollment will have decreased by the entire total of students enrolled in smaller suburban districts, such as Tomball ISD.

RELATED: Aldine ISD among school districts across the Houston region to cutting budgets to cover $857M in combined shortfalls

The district has closed nine campuses in the last two years, a move impacting 4,000 students and their families. Hoffman Middle School was originally on the list for closures, but trustees reversed course after parents expressed concern about losing the magnet program, Hoffman College Prep, that is housed there, according to reporting by the Houston Landing. 

Staring down a $100 million budget deficit, trustees said Tuesday that they had no choice. 

“Everyone on this board has agonized during the discussions on this matter,” said trustee Randy Bates Jr. “But that doesn't stop us from having the responsibility to be stewards of taxpayer monies that are given to us.”

Bates said he was ultimately swayed to vote in favor of the closures after district administrators said all students would be moved either to a school with better facilities or with higher academic achievement, and in some cases, both. 

"Aldine ISD is committed to its vision of providing a rigorous and enriching educational experience that prepares every student for success in college, career, and life. To that end, the optimization process continues to help us make the best decisions to maximize our facilities, employees, and resources to meet our students' needs," reads a statement sent by Brown earlier Tuesday.

The district began the process of closing schools last year, but picked the effort back up with board discussions in January of this year. Following the initial announcement and meetings with stakeholders, the district held three public meetings at elementary schools that would be closed. 

Trustee Connie Esparza said she attended all of the meetings and realized that the condition of the facilities were more dire than she thought. All but one of the campuses that will be closed next year are over 30 years old. Oleson, Raymond and Smith opened in the 1960s and De Santiago, Stovall and Eckert were built in the 1990s.

Smith Elementary is one of four extended-school year campuses in Aldine, meaning students attend school from mid-July to mid-June, with an extra 30 days of the school year. De Santiago Primary is one of four dual-language primary schools in the district.

“(I) set my foot inside that school, I thought ‘Our kids do not belong here.’ They need better facilities,” Esparza said. “I would think that the parents themselves would want that for their kids.”

Campuses considered for closure had to meet one of four criteria: facility utilization (how many vacant seats and classrooms a campus has), financial data (schools that are in the top 25% for per student costs), student outcomes (how well students are doing academically) and family choice (schools that had enrollment declines more than 20% since 2020).

Not everyone on the board was in favor of the closures, though. Garcia voted against every closure except Raymond Elementary School, after she announced that she would vote against any school with an enrollment of 400 students or more. 

“I know that the impact on the students and staff will be profound, or could be profound,” Garcia said. “Rather than depend mostly on this optimization work, the board's goals and expectations are that the administration, along with the parents, will work fervently to explore every option to intentionally increase both enrollment and attendance and other cost-cutting options or efforts that least impact teaching and learning.”

Trustee Paul Shanklin blamed the financial situation on state and national leaders. 

“It’s not over. We still have to balance the budget. If you're watching the news, you know what's going on in our state, in our nation, we're not getting extra money. We have to do something,” Shanklin said.

District leaders plan to host meetings to help prepare families at each impacted school. Chief Transformation Officer Adrian Bustillos said Monday that students and families would receive “swag” from their new campuses before they transfer and that transportation would be provided for students who qualify.

If a child is rezoned to an extended school year campus and the parent doesn't want their child to change schedules, other options will be considered, Bustillos said.