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Students used their voices to advocate for their schools at Thursday night’s CFBISD Board of Trustee meeting.
They joined adults to speak against school closures, most speaking on behalf of McCoy Elementary, whose parents advocated all the way to the Texas State Legislature to save that school in the last month. Texas Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez and board of trustee candidates Brady Barnett and Rangoli Mathur were also among the 20 speakers allowed to speak three minutes.
Superintendent Dr. Wendy Eldredge spoke before the presentation. “Our heart is CFB and CFBISD… No district ever wants to go through this process. At the end of the day, I do believe that we all want what is best for all of our students, our community and our future generation,” she said.
Trustees declined to second the motion to vote on the proposal until the district’s presentation. Following the presentation by Assistant Superintendent of Operations Chris Moore and other staff members about the closure, its financial benefits and the process, the board asked Moore and other staff members any remaining questions they had.
In the end, the board voted 6-1 to close four schools, Central Elementary, Furneaux Elementary, McCoy Elementary and Long Middle School and to rezone students districtwide to increase utilization of all schools across the district.
Trustee Carolyn Benavides voted against the proposal.
As trustees lifted their hands to vote yes, a voice yelled, “Vote them out,” as the audience rose from their seats almost in unison.
Many of the audience members left the meeting in tears.
A few details of Moore’s presentation since the Feb. 6 board meeting when the proposal was made public, which he said was because the district made adjustments based on community feedback received since that meeting. One of the biggest changes, the district’s LEAP program for gifted children will be moved to Good Elementary. The original plan was to move students to Landry Elementary, but Moore said in a survey most parents preferred a central location, and almost half preferred a northern location for the program.
“We pivoted on that after receiving parent feedback,” he said.
According to Moore’s presentation, the closure and consolidation of schools will reduce the district’s empty seats by more than 2,300 seats and save about $17 million if implemented with “fidelity.” The anticipated first year’s saving would be $9 million. Other benefits of the consolidation included programs located near where the majority of students served and improved transportation efficiency.
Moore said that demographic studies show the district has 9,800 empty seats, and that the $17 million is the cost to operate all four schools with current salaries of employees there. Financially, most of the savings will come through personnel attrition, he said. The district anticipates at least a 24 percent turnover rate at the end of this school year and that there will be a 20 percent permanent reduction in positions.
In response to questions from trustees about closing Central Elementary, Executive Officer of Construction Corey Blackburn said closing that school would allow Farmers Branch Elementary students to use that school while their school is rebuilt using bond funds, which would have to be approved by the bond oversight committee.
The consolidation recommendation slide in Moore’s presentation also said the Central Elementary closing would allow for long-term improvements at R.L. Turner High School.
Parents of students at McCoy Elementary banded together after the Feb. 6 board meeting, meeting with city and state leaders and protesting the closure of McCoy. In the time allotted for community participation, they asked the board to separate the vote for the proposal by school instead of voting for all the school closures at once.
Moore focused on the issues at that school, which include the lowest number of resident students affected by the consolidated feeder pattern, the pod classroom set up, the foundation sinking and upheaval at multiple points and insufficient kitchen design. According to his presentation, that school has capacity for 517 students and has 420 students enrolled, only 123 of whom reside within the attendance zone. Almost 66 percent of students at that school transfer there.
Moore also said attendance zone modifications have been made since the Feb. 6 meeting that affect Blanton, Freeman, Good, La Villita, Landry and Las Colinas elementary schools.
However, according to the map in his presentation, all of the schools in Farmers Branch will be affected by the new attendance zones.
Students already attending a rezoned school will have the choice to stay at that campus, Lance Hamlin, assistant superintendent of student services, said. The district does not want to separate families. “No matter what campus they are at today, based on their zones, we’re going to make sure that every student is taken care of … there were a lot of concerns out there,” he said.
All students at a particular campus will need to register for their campus. Siblings of a grandfathered student will be required to fill out transfer applications, he said. “Once again, we’re going to do everything possible to make sure these students have the opportunity to stay where they’re at.”
He said registration for rezoning will be March 24-May 9. He encouraged parents to “constantly check your email.” He said many times district emails end up in junk mail, so parents will need to check that regularly as well. “This year we’re asking for 60 days to have those responses to our families.”
All records will be sent to students’ new campuses, he said.
