![\"Lubbock](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/LISD_dashboard_1920x1080.jpg\")
Draft view of Lubbock ISD school dashboard. Credit: Lubbock ISD video.,<\/p>\n
District Optimization Framework<\/p>\n
Primary metrics<\/p>\n
Overall enrollment \u2013 under 450<\/p>\n
Facility utilization \u2013 under 70 percent<\/p>\n
Per student spending \u2013 more than 5 percent above average<\/p>\n
All based on a 3-year average<\/p>\n
Additional criteria<\/p>\n
Before a school can be closed, there must also be alternatives for:<\/p>\n
Students not being separated by \u201csignificant geographical boundaries\u201d between home and school<\/p>\n
Capacity to keep at least 30 percent of students from the school together<\/p>\n
And there are other considerations which LISD described as:<\/p>\n
Program offerings \u2013 A school type (such as dual language, IB, STEM) that\u2019s unique and offered to all students in the school. If a school designated for closure or consolidation is a unique model, the District would either move the program to another school or keep the school open.<\/p>\n
Historical context \u2013 Takes into consideration how District actions have impacted the community over time (for example, many students are at this school because of a previous school closure).<\/p>\n
Program demand \u2013 If a program is in high demand from parents who live both within and outside the attendance zone, consider whether it should be closed or whether another nearby school should be used instead.<\/p>\n
Student needs \u2013 The presence of standalone programs for students with severe needs (e.g., an autism program). If these programs exist, the District must ensure there\u2019s a plan for these students as part of decisions.<\/p>\n
Availability of aligned, high-quality options \u2013 Consider schools students would attend if school were closed to determine whether they are high-quality and how the district can support students switching to new schools.<\/p>\n
Praise for the dashboard<\/p>\n
LISD\u2019s professional staff pointed to the public dashboard as the centerpiece of the new process when presenting it to the board.<\/p>\n
Board members were pleased with the sample dashboard \u2013 developed by Ken Casarez, chief innovation officer and Lane Sobehrad, coordinator of research and innovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat dashboard is awesome,\u201d Curry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn this project, I would tell you it was done extremely well. \u2026 I think we\u2019ve got a darn good process to start with. \u2026 I believe that we have a product that the community can trust,\u201d Curry also said.<\/p>\n
Kathy Rollo, superintendent, said the information goes beyond the three criteria for potentially closing a school, including state accountability ratings.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can actually dig in deeper and access even more information \u2013 such as the principal, how many years that principal has been there, the average tenure of teachers, how many incentive allotment teachers are on that campus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Teacher Incentive Allotment<\/p>\n
Incentive allotment teachers are high performing teachers who get extra pay thanks to state funding. The Texas Education Agency described the program<\/a> as a way to \u201cattract and retain top teachers with an accessible pathway to a six-figure salary.\u201d <\/p>\n The dashboard includes a map \u2013 making it easy to switch from one school to the next. And the map includes the criteria for consolidation so viewers don\u2019t need to look it up somewhere else.<\/p>\n Mary Ann Lawson, trustee for District 2 (the eastern portion of LISD), said the district did well on the entire plan \u2013 not just the dashboard.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s based on three years. That\u2019ll give us a very good way of looking at it over time,\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n Beth Bridges, trustee at-large, said the process is not the only thing to impact future school closings. She described state mandates and funding as winds that \u201cblow us around.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t the final answer of who, what, when, where. This is what future boards can look at to make these hard, hard decisions in light of all the winds against us,\u201d Bridges said.<\/p>\n Trustee concerns, public participation<\/p>\n LISD held five town hall meetings during the fall 2025 semester \u2013 with a total attendance of 159, conducted a public survey online with more than 2,700 responses by early November, and invited 80 people to sit on a focus group \u2013 with 30 participating.<\/p>\n Weddige hoped for higher participation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a school district with 23,000 students and 159 people showed up total to town halls,\u201d Weddige said during the Thursday meeting.<\/p>\n Lala Chavez, trustee for District 1 (north and central LISD), said, \u201cWe need to be involved. When you come up and you talk to us, but then I don\u2019t see you at any meetings that makes no sense to me either.\u201d<\/p>\n Curry said, \u201cWe have community members that live a few blocks from an elementary school who are choosing to go across town. \u2026 So, you are choosing with your feet what schools you want to be considered for closure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you live in a community, and you are not lifting up the school that\u2019s in your community, you\u2019re part of the problem. You are not part of the solution,\u201d Curry said.<\/p>\n The situation is more complicated than school choice. Sharp said the birth rate declined east of Avenue Q by 50 percent in 10 years. Sharp called that \u201ca huge impact\u201d on neighborhood elementary schools.<\/p>\n Families need to be cheerleaders for nearby schools \u2013 encouraging friends, family and neighbors to send kids there instead of somewhere else, she said<\/p>\n \u201cWe have students who choose to go other than the school in their neighborhood. That\u2019s a choice that you have. But if you\u2019re choosing to go to a charter school in your neighborhood or across town rather than your neighborhood school, that\u2019s a choice. But then that also leads to decisions that the district has to make,\u201d Sharp said.<\/p>\n Clarifying a few details<\/p>\n No closures will be decided during the current school year. No consolidation gets decided until the fall of 2026.<\/p>\n Rollo said, \u201cThere will be no schools closed at the end of this school year. \u2026 This does not include the three new schools that were part of the 2025 bond election that passed. So those consolidations will happen regardless of this optimization framework.\u201d<\/p>\n Those consolidations were:<\/p>\n Stewart and Williams elementaries into a new school<\/p>\n Wolfforth and McWhorter elementaries into a new school<\/p>\n Bean to be combined with Hodges Elementary<\/p>\n Despite a popular social media post, the current and future closures do not include high schools. Estacado was mentioned in the post, but trustees said in the meeting it\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n![\"Kathy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/kathy_rollo_school_board_2026_jan_1920x1080.jpg\")
Dr. Kathy Rollo, superintendent, during Board of Trustee meeting. Credit: Lubbock ISD video.<\/p>\n![\"Lubbock](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/lubbock_isd_board_1920x1080.jpg\")
Back row: Ryan Curry, Beth Bridges and Jason Ratliff. Front row: Nancy Sharp, Mary Ann Lawson, Lala Chavez and John Weddige. Credit: Lubbock ISD web site.<\/p>\n
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