Grapevine-Colleyville parents say cuts to Title I grant funding will hurt kids
CORRECTION: The federal government cut the Title I grant funding to the Grapevine-Colleyville school district. Additionally, this article has been update to clarify the impact of the changes to schools.
Parents upset about sudden cuts to Title I grant funds affecting four elementary schools told Grapevine-Colleyville board members during Monday night’s meeting that students in gifted and talented programs at those campuses will not get the services they need and urged them to look for ways to reinstate the lost money.
District officials said they learned of the cuts when they received a letter from the Texas Education Agency on May 20 stating that Grapevine-Colleyville is losing $508,088 in Part A Title I grant funds and will receive $470,964 for the upcoming school year.
The TEA does not fund Title I programming, but is a “passthrough” for the federal money, spokesman said.
“Our correspondence to the district was notifying them about the federal decision, not a decision the agency made,” he said.
The cuts came about because the number of economically disadvantaged students fell below the 5% threshold, due to inter-district transfers to the virtual iUniversity Prep and to “brick and mortar” schools.
Nicole Lyons, a spokeswoman for the district said in an emailed statement to the Star-Telegram that the virtual school, which ranks No. 1 in Texas, and No. 2 nationally, and other transfers to brick and mortar schools bring in a large amount of revenue for the district, “something especially important as our overall enrollment is declining.”
Like other districts, Grapevine-Colleyville is also grappling with challenges brought on by years without increases in state funding and using general funds to spend above the state allocation for gifted and talented programs.
Carrie Mamantov, president of the support and advocacy group GC SAGE (Supporting and Advocating for Gifted Education), was among several parents who spoke during the meeting, urging trustees to delay adopting the 2025-26 budget until June 30 and spend more time looking for ways to reinstate the funding.
Another speaker, Beverly Mavis, said teachers and staff were not given opportunities for input.
“Why was the decision made to take away from the gifted and talented program?” she said. “It’s OK to take resources from the most vulnerable. It looks like CYA to me. This is a front office error.”
What schools are affected?
The four Title I elementary campuses are, Dove Elementary, Bear Creek, Timberline and Silver Lake.
Lyons said the district went from 23 Title I funded positions (paraprofessional and professional) between these campuses, including GCISD Collegiate Academy, to 16 Title I funded positions (paraprofessional and professional) for the 2025-26 school year. Therefore, the total reduction in positions across the district due to this change in funding was four paraprofessional positions and three professional positions, and their roles varied.
She added that the employees whose positions were eliminated were offered other positions in the district.
“It’s important to clarify that the gifted and talented (GT) programs are expected to see very little, if any, disruption as these campuses serve fewer GT students. All campuses plan to continue the level of support that GCISD GT students currently receive,” Lyons said.
But several in the audience said schools that are not Title I won’t see changes to their gifted and talented programs.
Board President Shannon Braun said in her report that the district administration came up with a good plan.
“We did not inherit a system of balance. We inherited a system of deep financial and structural issues that required immediate attention,” she said.
Some board members also expressed concerns.
“This subject is absolutely heart-wrenching…” trustee Matt Foust said. “How are we at the 11th hour to be able to accomplish what we need.
“Is there anything we haven’t explored, any rocks we haven’t looked under to solve this issue?”
Trustee Mary Humphrey asked district officials for clarification regarding the TEA’s decision to cut the grant funding.
Shannon Tovar, director of accountability and continuous improvement, said “it has been a concern to all of us and to our administration as well that we felt blindsided by this loss.”
Tovar said she was told that this is not a “typical year.” There was uncertainty about how much the state allocation would be from the federal government.
Although parents asked trustees to hold off on adopting the 2025-26 budget until June 30 to allow more time to find funds to restore the cuts, they voted 5-2 in favor of adopting a general fund budget of $197 million.
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 5:14 PM.