Two elementary schools within Irving Independent School District will close their doors next year after the cost-saving measure was passed by trustees on Monday.
Britain and Elliott elementary schools were barely at 50% capacity this fall, with approximately 640 students enrolled at the former and fewer than 500 students at the latter. As Irving ISD Trustee Lisa Lobb explained at a meeting on December 18, this significant shortfall is why they have been targeted for closure, according to KERA.
“Although this is not an easy decision, the reasoning behind it is simple,” she said. “With losing 4,000 students in our district over recent years, we are receiving millions of dollars less in money.”
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, last month, Irving ISD officials announced that school closures were on the horizon due to the student body falling by approximately 5,000, resulting in a budget decline of roughly $25 million.
“I wish that we could sit back and not have to do anything,” Superintendent Magda Hernandez had said at the time, according to CBS News Texas. “That’s what I wish. That’s what our board wished we could do, but we are not in that position right now.”
Irving ISD has seen lackluster student achievement scores, likely exacerbating this student enrollment decline. Only 33% of its students scored at grade level on their STAAR tests during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency accountability reports. Math scores were the lowest, with only 27% achieving grade level. However, 94.7% of Irving ISD’s senior class graduated on time.
By comparison, Dallas ISD, another district seeing student enrollment declines and academic challenges, saw only 81.1% of its graduating class that same term finish within four years. Yet 41% of Dallas ISD students scored at grade mark, with science seeing the lowest achievement share at 37%.
Alongside the closures of the two elementary campuses, Irving ISD’s attendance boundaries will be adjusted, funneling students from the affected schools to other campuses. As former Irving City Council Member Sharon Barbosa-Crain suggested, this will likely present considerable transportation and childcare adjustments for some parents. An estimated 85% of Elliot Elementary students were considered by the TEA as being economically disadvantaged and 77% at risk last school term.
“When you remove something as vital as a school, you will create a hole in that neighborhood,” Barbosa-Crain said.
