Judson Independent School District will close three elementary schools at the end of this school year.

The school board approved the closures of Ed Franz Leadership Academy, Rolling Meadows Elementary School and Park Village Blended Learning Academy in a 5-2 vote Tuesday night.

This comes a week after the board voted to close Judson Middle School, part of a plan to cut into a $37 million budget deficit by closing four campuses.

Officials say that closing three elementary schools and one middle school will save the district $7 million, or roughly one-fifth of its budget deficit.

Board members voted separately on the middle school and elementary campuses, listening to public comments and district reports across four separate public meetings.

On Saturday, district staff recommended closing Ed Franz Leadership Academy, Park Village Blended Learning Academy and Rolling Meadows Elementary School.

Interim Superintendent Robert Jaklich, who has been in the position for a week, said recommendations were made based on facility age and capacity, potential for enrollment growth, travel and distance to feeder schools, capacity at receiving campuses and the cost per student it takes to run that campus.

The board named Jaklich as interim last week after moving to fire superintendent Milton “Rob” Fields. Jaklich is the third leader Judson has had since the district placed Fields on administrative leave in January — the board previously picked two other interims before hiring Jaklich.

“We’ve got to take care of our fund balance,” Jaklich said. In Texas, a school district’s fund balance affects its borrowing power and standing with the state.

But community members and some board trustees wanted the district to wight more qualitative factors like campus culture, special programs and social emotional learning.

Jackson Freeman, a third grader at Rolling Meadows said his school was “not just a building,” but a family and community.

“When you walk into Rolling Meadows, you don’t just feel like you’re at school, you feel welcomed, you feel safe, you feel like you belong,” Freeman told the board before they voted to close the three campuses.

Trustees Laura Stanford and Jose Macias Jr. voted against the measures, preferring to close only two schools this year instead of four.

Trustee Suzanne Kenoyer, who usually sides with Macias and Stanford, said she voted for the closures because she couldn’t foresee Judson getting out of its financial hole unless they took aggressive action.

“Sometimes you have to cut the leg off so the infection doesn’t kill the whole body,” said Kenoyer, who used to teach at Rolling Meadows. “We’re in a situation now where we are in, truly, truly difficult circumstances.”

Immediately after the vote, Macias stormed off before the meeting officially ended and several audience members who were there to advocate against the closure of Rolling Meadows burst into tears.

Why Judson is closing schools

Across the district, Judson has lost 2,000 students since the 2021-22 school year. Judson is currently serving 22,697 students and enrollment is expected to keep dropping.

Throughout the consolidation process, officials said they were focusing on campuses with campus utilization of less than 50%.

Currently, Judson has 10 elementary schools that are under 60% utilized and four elementary schools under 50% utilized. As for middle schools, four are under 60% and three are under 50% utilized. Best practice is for campuses to sit at 85% utilization to keep a healthy budget.

Public school funding in Texas is based on enrollment and attendance, meaning underutilized campuses are more expensive to maintain.

Declining enrollment has been plaguing most school districts across San Antonio as well as other metropolitan areas in Texas and across the country. Low enrollment and budget constraints have led to school closures in North East ISD and San Antonio ISD.

Last year, Judson got very close to closing schools too, but the board voted against it, worried they were making a decision too close to the end of the school year, and hoping the district could get more funding from a tax increase election in November.

After the tax increase proposition was rejected by voters, Judson moved to restructure its budget, working on school closures before implementing other strategies like staff rightsizing and land sales.

Here’s why the district recommended closing these elementary schools:

Rolling Meadows opened in 2011 and currently serves nearly 400 students. It’s a C-rated campus on the far Northeast Side right outside the city of Selma.

Nearly every public commenter during Tuesday’s meeting was a Rolling Meadows teacher, parent or student asking the board to give the campus another year to boost enrollment. Rolling Meadows staff said most of its enrollment challenges were caused by competitive charter schools in the area.

Board members also spent most of their discussion time on Rolling Meadows, with trustees Stanford and Macias attempting to keep it open.

While demographers for the district say enrollment is likely to stay steady at about 400 students for the next few years, Rolling Meadows is only at 41% utilization.

Enrollment at the campus also declined after the district opened a new campus, Selma Elementary, only a few miles away for the 2025-26 school year. Before that, Judson redrew attendance zones, moving some Rolling Meadows students to the new school.

Students from Rolling Meadows will transfer to Selma Elementary where utilization would go from 50% to 83%.

Park Village Blended Learning Academy was built in 1978 and currently serves 340 students on the North East right outside Loop 410. By 2030, demographers predict enrollment to drop by roughly 60 students.

Park Village has the lowest utilization rate among the elementary campuses considered for closure, sitting at 34.34%. The school has also gotten an F-rating from the state three years in a row. If the campus gets another failing rating this year, it could prompt state intervention.

Judson plans to transfer Park View students to Hartman Elementary and Paschall Elementary, which would increase utilization at Harman from 60% to 74% and increase Paschall utilization from 58% to 64%.

Ed Franz Leadership Academy was built in 1969 and underwent a campus redesign a few years ago to center around a student leadership program called “Leader In Me.”

The academy serves 329 students, and the district expects the campus to lose 50 students by 2030. Currently, only 46.7% of the campus is utilized.

Closing Ed Franz would mean Judson loses the special leadership program, officials said, since other campuses have similar models but haven’t undergone the school-wide transformation Ed Franz did.

Ed Franz is a B-rated campus, considered very good for student outcomes. At a meeting on Saturday, some board members took issue with the district recommending closing a high-achieving campus, asking why academics weren’t considered along with physical utilization.

Jaklich said the district had to focus on the enrollment data — it’s what most impacts funding.

“When we talk about school closures and consolidations — the things and the magic that happen every day at those schools — we have to try to put that to the side because we have to look at what the data tells us,” he said.

Ed Franz students would be transferred to The Fine Arts Academy at Olympia and Crestview Elementary School, bringing utilization up at both to greater than 65%.

Next steps

Planning to close Ed Franz, Park Village and Rolling Meadows by the end of the school year, Judson officials will meet with each affected campus to help students and teachers transition to new campuses.

Assistant superintendent Lacey Gosch said the district had already met with Judson Middle School, which will also close at the end of the school year.

District staff will have to redraw school attendance zones, move and consolidate student programs, figure out new bus routes and change its enrollment and registration timelines, especially for students who are transitioning from elementary to middle schools and from middle school to high school.

Judson plans to host more campus visits for students and families, creating a new website for more information and updates on closures and forming transition teams at the district and campus levels.

Finally, Judson will have to think of how to reutilize closed campuses after they’re empty.

“There’s some concerns that these buildings will be left empty, that we will not be using them,” Gosch said. “We definitely want to begin the process of examining how can we utilize these sites to generate revenue.”