Seven elementary schools were closed at the end of the 2025-2026 school year: Austin Parkway, Dulles, Arizona Fleming, Glover, Ridgegate, Sugar Mill, and Mission West.
While many parents first learned of the potential for school closures by email in December 2025, the process had started long before that.
October 2024: Board approves Gibson Cost Savings Audit.
May 2025: The Gibson Cost Savings Audit identifies elementary closures as a $12.6M annual savings opportunity.
June 2025: Zonda says the phase of scenario development began, using enrollment forecasts, enrollment trends, FCI, geography, campus information and utilization.
October 2025: FBISD says it is gathering community feedback as part of the long-range boundary process.
November 2025: Board is told updated demographic and FCI information will help drive decision-making for the long-range boundary plan.
December 1, 2025: FBISD says it is finalizing boundary proposals ahead of the December 15 presentation.
December 15, 2025: Public sees the seven possible closures.
After the Dec. 15 presentation, the school board received considerable parental engagement, primarily in the form of public comment during board meetings. On Feb. 9 there were 34 speakers signed up to speak, on Feb. 23 there were 80, and on March 9 there were 53. The majority of speakers discussed the pending school closures. The board voted to close the schools on March 9, 2026, 84 days after the Dec. 15 presentation.
So why were schools being closed in the first place? According to the district, campus factors related to enrollment decline and projected budget shortfalls had created a projected deficit in the district’s operating (M&O) fund.
At the Feb. 23, 2026, meeting, Board President Kristin Tassin stated, “The data shows we talked about 5 to 7 million in savings…and that is significant when we’re having to cut programs and staff and shave dollars off. 10% of $56 million is substantial.” Tassin added, “If we choose not to close campuses, we’re making a specific choice to not provide teacher raises.”
Many parents pointed out the proposed savings of $5 million to $7 million was modest in the face of a $898 million school budget, even when accounting for a $56.4 million projected budget shortfall.
But budget wasn’t the only consideration.
Two months earlier at the Dec. 15, 2025, long-range boundary meeting Deputy Superintendent and Chief of Staff, Beth Martinez explained, “This is not an opportunity to close a budget deficit or to make a major impact in budget savings. It is a time to look at balancing that enrollment, maximizing the space that we have, and utilizing it for our academic programs.”
Of the seven campuses closed, only four were in the top 15 of least utilized schools using the enrollment numbers from May 18th, 2026.
According to FBISD and its consultants, the process considered enrollment trends, facility condition, geography, campus characteristics, and utilization, while the feasibility of consolidation could also be affected by special programming and the capacity of nearby schools.
I gathered the available figures for each campus to see where the seven closed schools fell on those criteria.
*Campus FCI scores were taken from the campus comparison report included with the December 15, 2025, Board meeting agenda. Enrollment and utilization figures were drawn from FBISD’s weekly enrollment reports, and TEA accountability ratings were obtained from the TEA website. Sonal Bhuchar and Aldridge, both new schools in 2025, are not included.
One of the common parent questions related to how the seven schools were chosen.
I tried prioritizing FCI score, TEA ratings, utilization, enrollment, and design capacity, in various weights, but was unable to replicate the final seven schools chosen for closure.
Some schools did have noteworthy metrics. Glover, Ridgegate, Fleming, and Mission West are among the top underutilized schools. Dulles Elementary had both a high FCI score and low TEA rating. Sugar Mill, Austin Parkway, and Fleming had some of the highest FCI scores.
One FCI score stood out during my research. Austin Parkway received nearly $1.8M from 2023 Bond investment, yet its facility condition index later worsened from 36% to 41% between 2021 and 2025, a five-point increase. A 2023 FCI score could not be located.
Instead of continuing to look at the closed schools, I decided to look at the receiving schools and something did start to stand out.
Many of the receiving schools were either new builds, recent rebuilds, or received a significant amount of spending from the 2023 Bond.
During a February 9, 2026 board meeting a Trustee said, “It made it easier because they got a brand new, beautiful building that they moved in with Briargate into Aldridge. The same with Mission Glen and Mission Bend.” (referencing previous consolidations) So the idea of sending students to an improved school isn’t a novel one.
This pattern suggests that the availability of an improved or newer receiving campus may have been a factor in determining which schools could be consolidated.
While ultimately unable to replicate the exact formula used by the district to choose which seven elementary schools were closed, seeing the data all together did help to start putting together the pieces of just how some may have risen to the top of the selection process.
With the new school year in full swing, tracking the outcome as far as enrollment changes is much easier to measure. Many of the receiving schools did see an increase in enrollment between May and September. Highlands increased by 242 students, Lexington Creek by 205, Townewest by 161, Barrington Place by 152, and Sonal Bhuchar by 140. Mission Elementary was particularly significant, increasing by 353 students. But not every school grew: Both Settlers Way and Ridgemont decreased in enrollment.
Future stories will examine the financial impact of the elementary school closures, current campus utilization across the district, and the broader effects of closing seven schools.
The Falcon asked the district on Oct. 11 for more information on how schools were selected and will update this article if it responds.