Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD presents consolidation plan as residents raise safety and equity concerns

Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District officials presented a plan March 4 to the City of Farmers Branch describing a recommendation to consolidate three elementary schools—Central, Fourno and McCoy—and one middle school, Long, after a facilities capacity and demographic review.

The district said the recommendation follows a facilities master plan and a capacity study that identified about 9,800 unused seats across the district. “We commissioned a demographic study, to capture information based on what the TEA calls snapshot day snapshot data,” said Chris Moore, assistant superintendent for operations, during the council study session. Moore said the district has adopted consecutive deficit budgets and faces declining enrollment that the district’s demographers project will drop by about 1,100 students over the next 10 years.

The proposal prompted public comment from Farmers Branch residents who said the rezoning the district has proposed could force students to cross large arterial roads and reinforce socioeconomic segregation in attendance zones. “If Central Elementary is closed, a lot of those students are gonna be rezoned to McLaughlin Strickland, which would force McStrick students to be rezoned to either Blair or to Stark, which is many, many miles away,” said Mary Patton, a Farmers Branch resident. Patton urged more traffic-impact and economic-impact studies and said she had requested data from the district that had not been provided.

Brady Barnett, a Carrollton resident, questioned the district’s stated near-term savings and recommended figures. “The savings of 9,000,000 that they're proposing in the first year, it's simply not possible unless they completely offload all staff and all other costs evaporate,” Barnett said, noting comparisons to other North Texas districts that reported smaller savings after closures.

District leaders described the analysis behind the recommendation. “We adopted a deficit budget in August of ’23,” Moore said. He summarized the process: a capacity study by Wolpert that produced the empty-seat estimate, a facilities planning advisory group that met with principals, teachers and parents to develop criteria, and a demographer’s report presented to the board in December 2024. Moore said 23 of the district’s 34 traditional campuses are operating at 75% capacity or less and that the district has experienced about a 4.7% enrollment decline over the last five years.

Council members focused on safety and local impacts. Councilman Rowland asked how the Farmers Branch reconstruction of Farmers Branch Elementary would be handled if consolidation proceeds; Moore said the district would use a temporary “swing” location, possibly Central. On pedestrian safety, Moore said the district would “exercise all the options that we can to get bus transportation for the students who would have to cross any one of those major 6-lane thoroughfares and not have to rely on a crossing guard.”

Council members and residents also asked for more detail on the demographic projections and the consultant inputs. “Where did they get the data points for the demographics and for the projected new occupancies?” Councilwoman Bennett asked; Moore said consultants used TEA snapshot data, local economic-development information and household yield estimates for multifamily and single-family properties. Council members asked the district to provide more localized estimates of how many displaced students would attend Farmers Branch schools and how pickup/drop-off traffic patterns could change.

School funding and state finance were repeatedly raised. Moore and board president Randy Schackman said the district sends substantial tax revenue to the state under the school finance “recapture” system: “We sent between 40 [and] 50 million dollars back to Austin,” Schackman said, and the district adopted a $19 million deficit budget in one year and a second-year deficit that pushed cumulative deficits higher. Council members described the funding formula as largely set by the Legislature and urged coordination on legislative priorities.

District officials emphasized they aim to retain staff where possible. “We are not eliminating staff,” Moore said; he described using normal attrition and a human-resources placement process if consolidation proceeds. Moore also noted state classroom ratio target guidance—22 to 1 in grades pre-K–4, 25 to 1 in middle school and 28 to 1 in high school—and said the district is designing consolidation plans to remain within those targets.

Moore said the board has not yet taken final action; the consolidation recommendation was on the board agenda for a vote later in the month. “The board took no action on that report [in the fall],” board president Randy Schackman said, and asked the council to continue the partnership between city and district as the process moves forward.

The city council offered to coordinate on traffic and safety planning for any rezoning impacts and asked the district to provide more detailed, local-impact information before any final vote. Council members said they would collect resident questions and continue the dialogue with district staff.

What happens next: The district’s consolidation recommendation is scheduled for a board vote; council members asked the district to return data about projected student flows into Farmers Branch, traffic impact studies, and clarifications about consultant assumptions and cost projections. Residents and council members signaled they expect more localized transportation and safety planning if any closures are approved.