School closings coming to another district in Fort Worth’s northern suburbs
The Keller school district will face tough decisions this year over closing schools as enrollment and funding continue to decline.
During the Jan. 22 board meeting, Superintendent Cory Wilson gave a sobering report showing the district’s dwindling enrollment and a difficult financial picture.
Wilson said the district’s Long-range Planning Committee will have “tentative recommendations” in March for criteria to use when deciding to close schools.
Later in the year, the Citizens Bond Advisory Committee will bring recommendations to the board for a bond election for capital improvements as the district faces maintenance and repair costs.
The committees are holding joint meetings because their responsibilities overlap, Wilson said.
“I know I say consolidation a lot because that’s the formal terminology, but what I’m talking about is, We’re going to have to close some campuses,” Wilson said.
The schools that are chosen will stay open until August 2027, he said.
Keller is not alone in closing schools. The Southlake Carroll and Grapevine-Colleyville districts recently voted to shutter campuses.
Decisions on which schools will close will be transparent and “data driven,” Wilson said.
Wilson said that when he came to the Keller school district in 2002, there were 19,000 students, and that number steadily increased to around 34,000. He described how Keller built around 20 campuses to keep pace with the growth.
“We never had to talk about closings,” he said.
But enrollment is dropping, and the district now has around 30,000 students with buildings at 77% capacity.
“This is setting us up for the long-term, and we’ve got to get this right,” Wilson said.
There are 2,661 high school seniors, but only 1,693 kindergarten students, Wilson said.
Information on the district’s committees are on its website.
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 4:14 PM.