Gadsden ISD superintendent outlines rightsizing plan as enrollment falls

Superintendent Dempsey told the Gadsden Independent School District board Tuesday that the district has been seeing steady enrollment declines and presented a rightsizing plan intended to protect staff and programs while reducing costs. "The why is our our declining enrollment," he said, and added the district has been shrinking gradually for more than a decade. Dempsey laid out a mix of strategies including employee transfers, a voluntary retirement incentive, formalizing a consolidation already underway at Loma Linda Elementary, consideration of consolidating Benigno (Berino) Elementary, possible transfer or repurposing of Southern Park Elementary, demolition or sale options for Mesquite Elementary, and a potential move of the Anthony pre-K center.

The superintendent described staff moves that are already under way as a mix of voluntary and involuntary transfers and said they rely on the district's collective-bargaining rules: when transfers are involuntary, "the lowest,…