Dallas ISD trustees will hear from the public Thursday on a recommendation to close six campuses at the end of this school year, and district slides prepared for the session lay out the reasoning: a budget gap that has grown to a projected $128 million and about 3,099 fewer students than the district planned for.
The list includes three early learning centers, J.J. Rhoads Learning Center, N.W. Harllee Early Childhood Center and Arlington Park Early Childhood Center, along with Harrell Budd Elementary School, Ignacio Zaragoza Elementary School and Boude Storey Middle School. The closures would take effect for the 2027-28 school year. Trustees are scheduled to vote at their Nov. 19 board meeting.
Where students would go
The presentation pairs each campus with a receiving school:
- J.J. Rhoads to H.S. Thompson
- Harllee to Cedar Crest
- Arlington Park to Obadiah Knight
- Harrell Budd to Cedar Crest and John Neely Bryan
- Zaragoza to William Lipscomb
- Boude Storey to Todd
Families would still be able to apply for a transfer to another neighborhood school with space or to a magnet or lottery-based choice program, the slides say.
The budget argument
The district says it began the year with a $104 million deficit, then lost another $24.8 million in state funding because enrollment came in at 128,901 instead of the projected 132,000. One slide estimates that merging two 250-student schools into one 500-student school would cut costs from about $5.51 million to $2.87 million a year, saving roughly $2.64 million and 20 positions.
The district also says it is steering students toward campuses that are new or getting major bond-funded renovations, because bond money can pay for buildings but not daily operations.
Harrell Budd is a separate case. After two F ratings, state law requires a turnaround plan, and the district picked closure and reassignment over the other options. Under that route, students must go to a campus rated A or B, and the Budd building must stay in educational use serving at least one of its current grade levels.
