Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD announced it’s considering closing four schools as the district faces a $19 million budget shortfall and is looking to cut costs.
The announcement came during a school board meeting on Thursday night, where some parents spoke out against the proposal saying it could negatively impact learning and district performance.
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WATCH HEREThe district shared with families that CFBISD is considering closing four schools: Furneax, McCoy, and Central Elementary Schools, and Long Middle School.
In a presentation on their facilities outlook, the district said it was facing a $19 million budget shortfall and their most recent demographics study in 2024 found there were 9,800 empty seats across their schools.
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SIGN UP District officials said CFBISD enrollment was projected to keep falling by thousands of students in the coming years.
School district leaders told the assembled crowd that the plan would eliminate more than 2,300 currently empty seats and save the district $9 million in the first year.
“The district will be underwater and bankrupt unless we do something this year,” said school board president Randy Schackmann.
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The plan to possibly consolidate campuses was laid out in a packed board meeting full of parents, teachers and students, many of them loudly opposed to closing campuses.
Some McCoy Elementary parents said the closure of their school would relocate the district’s LEAP program for highly gifted children, forcing families to move to another campus that could be significantly farther away.
Parents said some of the campuses set to close were among the highest performing in the district, and they’re concerned this move would drive families out of CFBISD.
“This is unacceptable, and we know that our choices are many,” said one parent of a McCoy Elementary student.
CFBISD said if the plan is approved, all staff from the closed campuses would be relocated to other positions within the district. The district will hold community meetings with the potentially impacted campuses through the rest of the month.
The Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD board will vote on whether to approve the campus closures in their meeting on March 6.
