Fort Worth ISD’s third community meeting on school closures sparks array of emotions
The Fort Worth Independent School District’s third community meeting this week to discuss upcoming school closures and a facilities master plan stirred a range of emotions from families and community members in attendance.
Hundreds of people filled the Benbrook Middle-High School auditorium on Thursday, Feb. 27, to ask questions and learn about the factors shaping the pending decisions on potential elementary school closures and consolidations in the district’s southwest region pyramids: Arlington Heights, Benbrook, South Hills, Southwest and Western Hills.
Tracy Richter, vice president of planning services at consulting firm HPM, presented an overview of how the district’s declining enrollment, capacity and utilization of its buildings, and the conditions of those buildings have prompted the need for a long-term facilities plan that looks at five, 10 and 15 years down the road. District officials said recommendations could come in late spring, but if the timeline is extended, it would get pushed to the fall.
Richter pointed out how district enrollment has declined by almost 13,000 students in the past five years and is projected to continue losing students in the coming five years. The district has an average class size of 23 students in each elementary school classroom, which requires about 1,630 classrooms total. The district has more than 2,500 classrooms, meaning 900 are going unused without counting portable classrooms.
“Money going after bricks and mortar instead of kids is not an acceptable standard for most school districts,” he said. “We have to build a facilities plan that looks different than we’ve ever done it before. That includes rightsizing this district to some extent.”
When Richter talked about an option to close North Hi Mount Elementary in the Arlington Heights pyramid, moving students to South Hi Mount Elementary and Burton Hill Elementary, some in the auditorium started to jeer and boo, prompting Interim Superintendent Karen Molinar to address the crowd directly about the outburst before Richter continued.
A large crowd of North Hi Mount Elementary families had rallied outside the school before the meeting, displaying signs reading, “Save Our School,” while passing drivers honked their cars’ horns in support. Adults sported shirts reading, “I <3 NHM,” while children sported matching shirts reading, “NHM <3’s me.”
School parent Zach Leonard was among the organizers of the rally and said it was a reflection of the widespread parent support of the campus. He voiced concern about there appearing to be no one from the North Hi Mount community on the facilities task force, which consists of about 100 district stakeholders who have been providing feedback throughout the facilities planning process.
“I think that it’s an injustice that we were added to this list, considering we have high achievement. We’re a B-rated school. We should be an A-rated school by next year, so we’re on the trajectory up,” Leonard said. “If they’re talking about building a new South Hi Mount (Elementary) and a new Burton Hills (Elementary), why don’t we get an annex at North Hi Mount? We deserve to be built on. We have an overenrollment of 160%. We have 400 students, and so we deserve to have that annex, to have the building and investment.”
Leonard also started a change.org petition to stop the potential closures of North Hi Mount Elementary and others in the Arlington Heights pyramid that have been listed among the options the task force and others involved in the process have suggested. The petition had garnered almost 1,800 signatures as of Thursday night.
At the beginning of the meeting, Molinar acknowledged the emotions that come along with identifying certain schools for closure, but she reiterated there was still time before final recommendations would be brought forward. Deputy Superintendent of Operations Kellie Spencer said additional meetings would be held in specific communities for more feedback.
Molinar drew applause and cheers from the audience during two notable moments. She said Western Hills High School was no longer going to be considered as an option for closure. She also said the district would refrain from selling any of its buildings to charter schools
“These are not easy conversations. We do not want any of our campuses to be consolidated or repurposed. And we definitely will not be selling those campuses for our charters to move in and continue to take our enrollment,” she said.
J.T. Stevens Elementary parent Mizz Jones said she’s concerned about class sizes growing larger if her daughter’s campus is absorbed into another one, which could mean less attention might be given to individual students. As far as the meeting itself, she liked how officials gave a link to the presentation at the beginning of the meeting so people could follow along and continue to digest the information later on.
“I wish they would have also given us a link to submit questions later, as opposed to just submitting them the same night,” she said. “They gave us a lot of information in like an hour. … We just need time to be able to process the information.”
The district has a survey on its website as another way to provide feedback.
The next community meeting about the facilities plan is at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 3. It will be held virtually over Zoom and cover all areas of the district.
This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 10:59 PM.
