Marge Wellman is worried about the future of the soon-to-be closed Wedgwood Sixth Grade campus.
Wellman lives in the surrounding area and is a board member for the Overton South Neighborhood Association.
“Any vacant building is a magnet for homeless people or vagabonds,” Wellman said. “People may move into the building or pitch tents in the yard where the kids play.”
Fort Worth ISD is closing the Wedgwood Sixth Grade campus in May because running the school is too costly as enrollment declines, according to district officials. The sixth grade campus will be folded into Wedgwood Middle School, which is 1½ miles away, starting in the 2024-25 academic year.
The consolidation marks the first school closure since the district shuttered Como Montessori School in 2022.
Wedgwood staff and families were notified of the closure March 4. The school hosted a community meeting for Wedgwood families March 6 at Wedgwood Middle School.
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The meeting didn’t last long, board trustee Anne Darr said. Her district covers the Wedgwood Sixth Grade and Middle School campuses. She said, so far, no community member has reached out to her regarding concerns about the consolidation.
The association, on the other hand, is worried about the presence of a vacant building within the neighborhood. The group says the school’s location along Interstate 20 often encourages homeless activity.
Wellman encouraged the district to make a prompt decision regarding the future of the building.
The school board has not discussed plans for the Wedgwood Sixth Grade building, Darr said.
The closure is part of the district’s larger effort to balance its 2024-25 school year budget. Fort Worth ISD faces a $44 million deficit next school year.
“We believe this consolidation will serve in the best interest of our families and the Wedgwood community,” Superintendent Angélica Ramsey said in a statement. “Creating one middle school will help us better serve our students while also aligning with the goals of the district. Together, we will create a thriving campus filled with learning, opportunity and community.”
On top of its budget deficit, the district is looking to optimize its use of facilities.
“It is no longer feasible to operate an entire campus for one grade given the district’s current and projected enrollment,” the district said in a statement about the consolidation.
Fort Worth ISD operates two other sixth grade campuses, McLean Sixth Grade in Westcliff and Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade in Echo Heights.
The district started talking about the future of sixth grade centers in 2018, Ramsey said in a March 7 email to the Fort Worth Report.
In February, Ramsey told the Fort Worth City Council that she had no current plans to close schools and was waiting for the finalization of two studies before making any decisions.
“I’d like to state publicly we are nowhere near any of those conversations because we have this master facilities plan that won’t even be done until about December,” Ramsey told council members. “Until that time, then that next step is, ‘Here are the recommendations from the plan, what next?’”
Darr wasn’t caught off guard by the district’s decision to consolidate Wedgwood. Change is coming to Fort Worth ISD, she said.
“We have known it was a possibility, but the timeline was up to administration,” Darr said. “I think everything in education is fluid … The only thing we know for sure is a constant is change.”
Wedgwood Sixth Grade can hold up to 469 students. During the 2022-23 school year, 309 students were enrolled. That means the school was about 66% full.
Enrollment hit a high at the school during the 2016-17 academic year when 476 students were enrolled, slightly surpassing the campus capacity, according to Texas Education Agency data.
Since then, Wedgwood Sixth Grade has lost 1 in 3 students.
As the campus lost students, the cost to operate the school ballooned. Between the 2012-13 and 2022-23 school years, the total budget for Wedgwood nearly tripled, according to TEA.
Fort Worth ISD spent $2,423 per Wedgwood Sixth Grade student during the 2012-13 school year. A decade later, that number was $9,599 — a nearly 300% increase.
Fort Worth ISD spent $14,368 per student during the 2022-23 school year, TEA records show. A decade ago, the district spent $8,603 on each student. That is a 67% increase.
Wedgwood Middle School’s enrollment has declined, too. During the 2022-23 academic year, the middle school had 662 students. Enrollment hit a high in the 2014-15 school year when 931 students attended the campus.
Wedgwood Middle School has a capacity of 855 students.
The schools follow Fort Worth ISD’s overall shrinking enrollment. The district has lost nearly 1 in 5 students since the 2016-17 school year.
District documents presented to the school board in February showed 71,061 students attending Fort Worth ISD. Next school year, enrollment is projected to decline to 69,342.
Fewer students means fewer dollars from the state. The district expects to lose more than $9.5 million in state funding for the 2024-25 school year.
This consolidation decision comes two years before the expected opening of a substantially renovated Wedgwood Middle School. The district’s $1.2 billion bond passed in 2021 called for major renovations to schools across the district, with plans to consolidate some schools.
The $61.7 million project is scheduled for completion for the 2026-27 school year. Construction begins later this year.
Editor’s note: This story was updated March 7, 2024, to include a statement from Superintendent Angélica Ramsey about 2018 district discussions on sixth grade centers and comments from the Overton South Neighborhood Association.
Jacob Sanchez is an enterprise journalist for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @MatthewSgroi1 on X, formerly known as Twitter.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
