The Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD board voted to close four schools, sparking disappointment and protests from students and parents.
CARROLLTON, Texas — The Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD board voted to close 4 schools Thursday night.
The news came to the dismay of dozens of students and parents who begged them not to at Thursday night’s board meeting.
Those campuses include Central Elementary, McCoy Elementary, Furneaux Elementary and Long Middle School. Attendance zones across districts will shift as a result.
Students and parents protested the closures since the very moment they became a possibility. The dissenters argued, among other things, that they would badly damage kids socially and emotionally. Many families Thursday night called the decision rushed, said there wasn’t enough community engagement and said there are better, less devastating ways to cut costs.
“The right thing to do for this district is to keep its best schools open, anything less is a disservice to our parents students and our community,” one mother told the board, advocating for her child’s school to remain open. “The district is proposing a short-term budget fix at the cost of our children’s futures.”
But neither that mom nor any of the other people who came to speak to the board were able to move the needle. District staff said CFBISD is simply facing significant money and enrollment problems, noting state funding per student hasn’t gone up in six years.
The district currently has 9,800 empty desks, according to officials, who say the consolidation plan will save the district $9 million in the first year alone.
