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Harlandale ISD board reviews enrollment decline, explores outreach and data limits with charters
Summary
Trustees were told the district has lost roughly 6% of enrollment over two years and staff outlined causes — growth outside loop 410, school-choice options and lower birth rates — and proposed recruitment steps including yard signs; staff also described limits in obtaining enrollment data from IDEA charters.
Mister Sotto, superintendent of schools, told the Harlandale ISD board at the Dec. 10 work session that the district has curtailed worst-case demographer projections but still faces declining enrollment trends.
"We've lost about 6% over the last 2 years of total enrollment," Mister Sotto said, and he said a demographer had projected a larger decline in some scenarios ("about 1,000 kids per year"). He attributed much of the shift to city growth outside loop 410, the availability of charter schools and other choices, and a declining birth rate.
Board members asked what the district can point to as the leading cause. Mister Sotto said it is a combination of factors, including new high schools being built outside the 410 loop and increased school choice locally.
Trustees discussed outreach ideas to retain and recruit families: targeted flyers near charter clusters, yard signs highlighting extracurricular programs, and homeowner volunteers to host signage. Mister Flores provided an estimated cost for a yard-sign campaign: "The initial quotes, I believe, were about 55,000," he said, and staff said communications was refining design and timing so signs would remain in place for the full season.
The board also asked whether IDEA charter schools will share enrollment counts. Mister Sotto said IDEA will not release that data via open-records requests, so the district can only track students who enroll with Harlandale and later transfer to IDEA; students who enroll directly with a charter without entering Harlandale records are not visible to district files.
Staff said they will compile available plus/minus enrollment numbers and share them with the board; no formal policy action or vote occurred at the work session.
