EDUCATION
HEATHERWILDE BLVD.
What's changing?
PfISD will not close schools, faces $7M budget shortfall
35
New
Current high school zoning
MOPAC
Starting in the 2023-24 school year, some areas in southeast P ugerville zoned for Weiss High School will change to P ugerville or Connally high schools. attendance zones
1 T
BY CARSON GANONG
recommended closing ele- mentary schools—among the schools suggested as options were P ugerville, River Oaks and Dessau elementary schools. In the months following the committee’s nal recommendation, PfISD o cials narrowed down the proposals to two options: one that would see Dessau Elementary School close and another that would realign attendance boundaries for some high schools. Since December, a coali- tion of parents and teachers from Dessau Elementary has been attending district board meetings to voice opposition to the plan. “If you take this elemen- tary away, you take away the history, the culture [and] the belonging we all have and our children have to be proud to be from Des- sau,” said Emily Miranda, a fth grade teacher at Dessau Elementary. The latest action At a Feb. 23 board meeting, trustees voted to move forward with only the high school portion of the plan, leaving Dessau Elementary O cer Jennifer Land said closing Dessau Elementary would have saved the district around $2.5 million. The district previously delayed the opening of Hidden Lake Elementary School—a new campus in east P ugerville—as a cost-saving measure, but the district plans to open the school for the 2023-24 school year to address growth in the surrounding area. Land said even if trust- ees voted to close Dessau Elementary, the FY 2023-24 open and its attendance boundaries unchanged. PfISD Chief Financial
P ugerville ISD o cials decided not to close any elementary schools but will instead adjust high school attendance boundaries, moving around 560 Weiss High School students to P ugerville and Connally high schools. The Feb. 23 decision came as PfISD is predicting a $7 million shortfall for the scal year 2023-24 budget. Superintendent Doug Killian said it means the district must consider other options to reduce its spending. Decisions beyond new high school boundaries have yet to be made, but trustees said in the coming months they will examine options, including sta reduction and smaller cost-cutting mea- sures districtwide. Killian said many factors have contributed to PfISD’s scal challenges over the past several years, including rising fuel, supply and labor costs. But ultimately, Killian said PfISD will continue to ght de cits until state leaders x the mechanism by which Texas school districts are funded. “The biggest issue is the funding formula and student enrollment,” Killian said. “The combination of those two things along with the attendance since the pandemic has really hit us hard.” Hard decisions In December, the district’s attendance boundary committee presented pro- posals for boundary changes, several of which involved closing one or more schools to help account for the projected $7 million budget shortfall. Early on in the pro- cess, several proposals
P ugerville ISD boundary
High school
Area of change
IMMANUEL RD.
45 TOLL
GRE MAN RD
HIGH SCHOOL ZONE AREAS
GREENLAWN BLVD.
P ugerville High
Connally High
E. HOWARD LN.
Weiss High
Hendrickson High
HEATHERWILDE BLVD.
PARMER LN.
Current zones
35
New high school zoning
MOPAC
1660
GREENLAWN BLVD.
1 T
45 TOLL
35
129
MOPAC
HEATHERWILDE BLVD.
CAMERON RD.
973
WELLS BRANCH PKWY.
130 TOLL
IMMANUEL RD.
GRE MAN RD
HARRIS BRANCH PKWY.
GREGG MANOR RD.
FUCHS GROVE RD.
E. HOWARD LN.
MAP NOT TO SCALE N
SOURCE: PFLUGERVILLE ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
PARMER LN.
budget shortfall would not diminish as district estimates show Hidden Lake Ele- mentary will cost about $3 million to open and sta . The changes to high school attendance boundaries will result in approximately 560 Weiss High School students being relocated to P uger- ville and Connally high schools. Hendrickson High School’s attendance bound- aries will not change. Chief of Sta Brandy Baker said the plan includes a grandfathering clause for students entering 11th and 12th grades during the 2023-24 school year at Weiss High. The district will also close transfers to Weiss and Hendrickson high schools.
The new attendance boundaries will go into e ect in the 2023-24 school year. Killian said the high school changes will have little direct impact on the district’s budget but will prevent the need for build- ing a new high school. “We really can’t a ord to sta a new high school at the current rate,” Killian said. Finding savings elsewhere Without the savings from closing Dessau Elementary, the district will have to consider other options for cutting costs. These include reducing sta ng ratios for campuses with smaller student populations. “We’ve got a lot of
campuses that are sitting at [600, 700] or 800 students, and they have the same sta ng,” Killian said. “So we could sta them fraction- ally—like have a system prin- cipal share two campuses and [have the principal] go back and forth.” Killian said the district will likely cut smaller expenses, such as computer programs and districtwide surveys. However, Killian said lasting nancial relief for PfISD will have to come at the legislative level through an increase in the funding received per student, an item working its way through the Texas Legislature.
15
NORTHWEST AUSTIN EDITION • MARCH 2023
Powered by FlippingBook