Correction: An earlier version of this piece included an incorrect claim about high school enrollment numbers.
Euless’s longtime Treetops School International charter operation said it will close its middle and high schools at the end of the year, citing falling finances and enrollment.
Starting in the fall, it will only serve grades K-6.
The February news spelled a major shift for the decades-old charter. In last month’s letter to “The Treetops Community,” the school’s board president Mike Sacken explained falling enrollment and unfunded state mandates had created a “change or dissipate crisis.”
The board, he announced, had voted to cut its 7-12 grade classes at the end of the semester..
“We cannot afford to survive if we maintain middle or high school,” Sacken wrote.
He said in his letter the school would face a deficit of $75,000 to $100,000 if it proceeded as a K-12 school.
"Moreover, unless we could find a revenue flow that infused at least $75,000 more in funds for the budget every year in the future, we would be bankrupt in a few years," he wrote.
KERA sought comment from Sacken but he hasn’t yet responded.
In many ways, the small, 355-student charter school is its own tiny district.
As such, Treetops Superintendent James Whitfield, who’s led the district for about a year and a half, said Treetops’ financial troubles are similar to other Texas districts that have struggled financially with inflation, dropping enrollment and stagnant state funding since 2019.
Like some smaller Texas districts, Treetops will also go to a four-day school week next year to retain teachers. Whitfield said the board’s decision to end upper grades was difficult because trustees have personal connections to the school. He said they are former students, parents of students, or past teachers. And board president Sacken has served since before Treetops became a charter school in 1998. The campus first began as a private school in 1969.
Whitfield said keeping kindergarten through grade 6 was logical, because enrollment in lower grades has been healthy, with “classes of upwards of the high 30s to 40s.
"In some instances, you have people waiting to get in," he said.
But not so in the upper grades, he said, where numbers dropped off year by year, with just 11 students in 12th grade. That’s no surprise to Whitfield, who said that because of Treetops’ small size, “we weren’t able to offer the things that kids deserve in those upper grades, if we’re brutally honest with ourselves.”
That includes everything from larger fine-arts programs and athletics/sports to CTE (Career and Technical Education) and other electives offered in traditional ISDs, Whitfield explained.
Alternative options for Treetops' older students are listed on the school’s website. Those students include Whitfield’s own son: The superintendent said his child will attend Birdville ISD as a 7th grader this coming school year.
Treetops’ closure means enrollment could drop by 100 students, he said, and the 35-member faculty could shrink by about 10 teachers.
Staffing for next year will depend on enrollment, which won’t be better known until later this spring. Trying to make up for the expected loss of students – and the state funding tied to them — Whitfield said he’s been visiting local day-care centers and has also posted Facebook ads “to bring in more students.” And while some teachers may pursue jobs elsewhere or retire, he hopes to offer jobs to as many as possible.
“Our goal has always been to keep our people,” Whitfield said.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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