All over North Texas, school districts are making hard decisions: Budget cuts, staff reductions, school closures and consolidations. Name a school district and you will find a similar version of this narrative, driven mostly by enrollment decline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, we learned that\u00a0the nation\u2019s fertility rate dropped by\u00a01%,\u00a0continuing\u00a0a\u00a0nearly\u00a0two-decade\u00a0decline, according to federal data.\u00a0North Texas is still growing in population,\u00a0but many\u00a0districts are seeing fewer children.<\/p>\n
School districts are also facing competition from charter and private schools. And now, new state-sponsored education savings accounts might have an impact as well. Since school funding in Texas is largely tied to student attendance, districts are tightening their belts.<\/p>\n
This is the new normal.\u00a0School districts\u00a0need to plan\u00a0around declining enrollment and be prepared to\u00a0manage\u00a0costs.\u00a0This includes closing schools, reducing\u00a0staff\u00a0and\u00a0aligning\u00a0their budgets\u00a0with\u00a0students\u2019 needs.\u00a0The way they\u00a0communicate their decisions\u00a0to families will matter\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month,\u00a0Richardson ISD\u00a0proposed staff cuts<\/a>\u00a0and other program reductions\u00a0expected\u00a0to save\u00a0about\u00a0$25.7 million.\u00a0The\u00a0plan\u00a0includes reducing\u00a0roughly\u00a095\u00a0full-time positions\u00a0to\u00a0align\u00a0staffing with\u00a0current enrollment trends,\u00a0Superintendent\u00a0Tabitha Branum\u00a0said\u00a0at\u00a0an April 2\u00a0board of trustees meeting.\u00a0Enrollment\u00a0declined\u00a0by\u00a0723 students<\/a>\u00a0last\u00a0school year.<\/p>\n Facing an $8.5\u00a0million deficit, Coppell ISD\u00a0reported\u00a0$7\u00a0million\u00a0in savings\u00a0from payroll cuts, mostly by attrition and closing vacant\u00a0positions.\u00a0Coppell ISD\u00a0projects\u00a0a loss of\u00a0more than\u00a01,900\u00a0students\u00a0for the next decade.\u00a0But\u00a0its\u00a0Chief\u00a0Financial\u00a0Officer\u00a0Amber Lasseigne\u00a0told KERA\u00a0they expect\u00a0an\u00a0increase\u00a0of about 225 students<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0next\u00a0school year.<\/p>\n Dallas ISD is\u00a0betting on universal\u00a0pre-K for 3 and 4-year-olds<\/a>.\u00a0The program, previously offered\u00a0to low-income\u00a0students,\u00a0may soon be\u00a0expanded\u00a0to\u00a0more families\u00a0at no cost. The\u00a0expectation\u00a0is that more families\u00a0will stay\u00a0in the district\u00a0in the long run,\u00a0said\u00a0Superintendent Stephanie\u00a0Elizalde.<\/p>\n Other districts are betting on their well-earned reputation. Frisco ISD has a program called Access Frisco that allows out-of-district students to enroll in a FISD school. FISD is preparing to launch Frisco Flex, a program that offers hybrid and fully online learning opportunities.\u00a0We have reservations about this virtual program<\/a>, but it is another example of how school districts are\u00a0responding\u00a0to\u00a0their declining enrollment.<\/p>\n While districts have to do what\u00a0they\u00a0can to\u00a0capture\u00a0enrollment, there is going to be a limited pool of students available.\u00a0Even with the best ideas, declining enrollment\u00a0is here to stay.<\/p>\n School districts will continue to make difficult choices. Reducing costs\u00a0will be\u00a0the path forward.<\/p>\n Have thoughts about this?\u00a0Send a letter to the editor\u00a0using our letters form<\/a>\u00a0or email\u00a0letters@dallasnews.com<\/a>. Letters should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All over North Texas, school districts are making hard decisions: Budget cuts, staff reductions, school closures and consolidations.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-267964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}