Multiple Houston-area school districts announce campus closures, matching national trend

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- As Houston-area school districts wrap up the school year, several have announced that some campuses will not reopen in the fall.

It's a change school districts say must happen, but it's a shift families say is adding a lot of uncertainty to their lives.

"We are heartbroken, we are not happy about this situation," McMasters Elementary School parent Delta Madena said.

Pasadena ISD is the latest school district in the Houston area to consider closing schools. The district announced it was considering closing McMasters Elementary and Tegeler Community School due to declining enrollment and financial pressure.

"We feel really disappointed because if they close it down, my child has to go to another school, and there are going to be so many kids in the classroom," McMasters Elementary parent Yesenia Molina said.

Pasadena isn't alone in this decision. Earlier this year, Houston ISD announced the closure of a dozen middle and elementary school campuses; Fort Bend ISD approved the closure of seven elementary schools; Aldine ISD is moving forward with the closure of two middle schools; and Spring Branch ISD is shuttering one middle school.

Adrian Bustillo with Aldine ISD said this shift isn't unique to our area. In fact, Bustillo said the trend is happening nationwide as fewer children are born and people move away from urban areas to seek more affordable lives.

"We are graduating more kids than are actually entering our system today," Bustillo said.

When a district announces or proposes a consolidation, we see similar explanations listed time and again. Student bodies are shrinking, district finances are growing increasingly tight, and more people are opting to homeschool or send their children to private or charter schools.

Bustillo said that over the last summer, Aldine ISD lost 4,000 students alone.

The student population is tied to how much funding the state sends to districts. Bustillo said the population drop means Aldine ISD received $28 million fewer dollars from the state than the year before.

The district said on average it costs $10.1 million to run a single middle school for one year.

"School districts are not doing this to communities because they want to. We have to right-size our districts and make sure we can continue services and give the best programming for our students moving forward," Bustillo said.

The state tracks when an entire district is consolidated, but not when a campus is closed, so it's unclear how many schools will close their doors this school year and never reopen.