Travis Elementary is a Title I school serving many low-income families, now facing possible consolidation and closure under CCISD\u2019s budget plan.<\/p>\n
The Corpus Christi Independent School District hosted the first of several public input meetings Thursday night to discuss the proposed consolidation of seven campuses \u2014 including William B. Travis Elementary School.<\/p>\n
Travis is a Title I campus, meaning it serves a high number of students from low-income families. Many of those families could feel the impact if the school closes.<\/p>\n
Karen Griffith, CCISD\u2019s Deputy Superintendent for Business and Support Services, said the district is facing a $27.5 million budget shortfall. She said school districts rely heavily on enrollment to support funding, and with some campuses sitting half-empty, difficult decisions must be made.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s why we’re in the predicament that we are,” she said. “So we have to decide what schools we can consolidate because in the loss of that enrollment means vacancies in our other buildings.”<\/p>\n
Griffith said another reason for the growing deficit is the lack of support from the state Legislature.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey mandate to the district, but they don’t give us extra funding, and to talk about inequity, we get $6,215 for our students. Now they’re going to do vouchers and give them $10,000,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For parents like Desiree White and her son, Travis Elementary isn\u2019t just a school, it\u2019s part of their daily routine. White is also a student at Del Mar College just down the street and doesn\u2019t have a car. She said if the campus closes, it could disrupt her housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to do a lot of bureaucracy, paperwork and getting things together. It’s not something necessarily that I would get to recertify for the voucher again. They might put me back on the waiting list, and then I wouldn’t be able to have housing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
White attends Del Mar in hopes of becoming a history professor \u2014 a dream she said could be derailed if her son\u2019s school closes.<\/p>\n
\u201cRedo my entire class schedule because my child has to be at school a certain time and I have to be back for class. That’s something I\u2019d have to do is drop classes or withdraw from classes and then redo my college schedule because that’s something that’s very important to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s meeting at Travis was the first of eight opportunities for parents and staff to voice their concerns. The next meeting is set for Tuesday, Dec. 9, at Browne Middle School.<\/p>\n
The CCISD Board of Trustees is expected to discuss the issue again in mid-January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travis Elementary is a Title I school serving many low-income families, now facing possible consolidation and closure under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-77075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77075","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=77075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}