Despite a final plea from students and parents, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD trustees voted last night to close two elementary schools in an effort to save the district money.
Beginning in 2026, students at Dove and Bransford elementary will attend other nearby schools. Both decisions passed with a 5-2 vote.
For weeks parents and students have tried to prevent the closures. Dozens spoke out during the meeting, many urging the board to delay — perhaps indefinitely — the votes.
Parent Marissa Perry, who has three kids in the district, said the decision to close schools should be paused.
"The decision to close schools is not an education master plan," she said. "This is not the GCISD that I used to be proud of. This is not the GCISD that I moved here for. This is a sham."
Like many North Texas districts, GCISD’s enrollment has dropped in recent years. District leaders say enrollment has fallen by hundreds of students since 2019.
That’s led to declining revenues, coupled with inflation and lagging state funding through along-unchanged student allotment. A district committee earlier this year decided Dove and Bransford elementaries should close to save money.
Alan Corbin encouraged trustees to open enrollment to out-of-district students to boost enrollment as other districts have done.
"There are many parents that when we tell them 'my daughter's at Bransford,' they tell us how lucky we are because of the arts integration," he said. "You have no idea what you're going to cause if you close Bransford."
Trustee Dalia Begin said she didn't disagree that the district needs to close schools, but questioned the process the district has taken. She agreed opening enrollment could draw in more students and said the district's solution "has to be build on foresight."
"We are surrounded by many districts that are opening enrollment that our students will go to if we don't do anything," she said.
But board president Shannon Braun said the district had little choice, as it faces a more than $3 million shortfall even after numerous budget cuts over the last several years. She said the decision couldn't be delayed.
"This is painful," she said. "We were elected to lead. And we were elected to make hard choices that protect the long-term health and excellence of our schools. And the truth is that there is no viable alternative."
Braun and others pointed out the district's enrollment and financial problems predate the current board.
In a 2024 letter to families, former Superintendent Brad Schnautz, who left the district last month to take a job with a state education service center, said the district was exploring “every avenue possible to find cost savings,” but ruled out school closures at the time.
“You may have heard of other districts closing campuses next school year due to large deficits and declining enrollment,” he wrote. “This is not the case in GCISD.”
Grapevine-Colleyville is the latest North Texas district to face school closures: McKinney ISD last month voted to close three elementary schools, and in October Frisco ISD trustees approved closing a middle school.
In a surprise move two months ago, however, Coppell ISD trustees voted to keep Town Center elementary open after considering closing it, but said they will have to find other ways to fill its $8.5 million budget deficit.
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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