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Edinburg CISD reports early fall enrollment shortfall; trustees ask for plan to recover leavers
Summary
District officials reported a net drop in early-week enrollment compared with last year, described a districtwide outreach program (Project Gateway) to recover students and received a board request for a detailed plan to retain returned students.
Edinburg Consolidated ISD officials told trustees on Aug. 22 that early fall enrollment counts are below the same point last year and described ongoing outreach to recover students who left the district.
District PIMS director Bridal (Freddy) Martinez reported enrollment for the fifth school day (Aug. 22) at 31,557 students districtwide, down 797 from the same day last year. Martinez broke the total into 15,754 elementary students (minus 377), 6,306 middle school students (minus 131) and 9,497 high school students (minus 289). He said families continue to enroll daily and that since the prior Friday the district had added about 344 students.
Martinez said the district's Project Gateway outreach team ' consisting of parental-involvement specialists, truancy officers, visiting teachers and campus staff ' was actively contacting no-shows and former students. Trustees were given a running reconciliation: a recent list of 'no-shows' had been about 853 and had been reduced to roughly 606 as outreach progressed. Martinez also noted a cohort analysis showing a return of about 31 students districtwide when comparing returning cohorts (excluding graduating seniors).
Board members pressed for more detail. Several trustees emphasized door-to-door contacts and district marketing as key tactics: making individual parental contacts, using campus teams to follow up and running targeted campaigns to retain students who had moved or briefly enrolled elsewhere. Trustees asked administration to provide a specific plan for converting recovered students into sustained enrollees and to report back at the next board meeting with a retention strategy.
Trustees also asked for information about migrant students and the effect of families temporarily leaving the country: Martinez said the district had roughly 285 students coded as migrant leavers at one point and reported a later figure of about 255 students still pending return as of the afternoon update; he noted TEA allows later reporting exceptions for migrant students and that some leavers typically return between August and January.
Board President David Torres and other trustees directed the superintendent and executive staff to prepare a presentation for the next board meeting detailing the outreach and retention plan, including campus-level accountability, timelines and estimated fiscal impact if recovered students materially change ADA (average daily attendance) and revenue projections.
