Earlier in the year, Lubbock ISD’s Board of Trustees adopted a plan that would dictate how the district would go about considering school closures and consolidations after previous efforts were met with community outrage.
This new plan — named the District Optimization Plan — lays out three main criteria and the following sub-criteria the district will use to determine whether to close each school.
Board President Ryan Curry said that, when the plan was unanimously approved, it had been 13 months in the making.
“This board demanded in late November, early December of 2024 that criteria be established that the community could see, and it be out in front,” Curry said.
Here’s a look at the criteria it lays out and when it will be officially implemented.
Will LISD start closing schools in Spring 2026?
When the plan was approved, Lubbock ISD Superintendent Kathy Rollo said it would not impact schools in the 2025-26 school year.
“There will be no schools closed at the end of this school year,” Rollo said. “We’re not bringing any recommendation to (the board) for closing schools at the end of this school year.”
But starting in Fall 2026, the district will start following the optimization plan.
The district’s chief innovation officer, Ken Casarez, laid out the following timeline for how the plan will be implemented next school year and the years moving forward.
What are the three main criteria LISD is looking at when closing schools?
Here are the three main criteria LISD is evaluating schools on to see if closure/consolidation is needed.
Overall school enrollment
The threshold is 450 students based on a three-year average.
This will be calculated by the prior years’ Texas Education Agency Texas Academic Performance Reports. For the year that the district will make its decision on the school, it will use enrollment numbers as of the third Friday in September per internal records.
Facility Utilization
The threshold is a school utilizing 70% or less of available facility capacity, defined by LISD based on a three-year average.
This will be calculated by the school’s enrollment — defined under overall enrollment figures — divided by facility capacity — defined by LISD in 203-24 and is revisited every five years.
Per-pupil spending
The threshold is a school with per-pupil spending more 5% above the district average based on a three-year average.
This will be calculated by including all spending on campus — including salaries — divided by overall enrollment. The district average will be based on elementary and middle schools only.
Will LISD factor in any other consideration when deciding to close a school?
If a campus hits all three metrics, then the board is given additional factors to consider before making a final decision.
“We want to make sure that they’re also making sure that if a move has to be made, then students are not facing significant geographic boundaries when we’re looking at potential campuses to move students into,” Casarez said. “And then we also want to make sure that we are keeping the students together as much as possible, with at least 30% of the students being put together in a campus if that were to happen.”
The board will also look at program offerings when making the consideration — i.e., if the school is offering unique programming, like STEM and IB, which draws in enrollment outside of the attendance zone.
The other contexts include:
How can I monitor if my student’s LISD school will be closed?
Lubbock ISD has published a dashboard at www.lubbockisd.org/page/optimization-framework.
All three primary metrics are front and center, with parents able to see the three-year averages and the difference from the district average in those three areas as well.
Also, there is the three-year state accountability report and a map of where the school is located, along with nearby LISD campuses.
Mateo Rosiles is a reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and USA TODAY Network in Texas. Got a news tip for him? Email him: mrosiles@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: What to know about Lubbock ISD’s district optimization plan
Reporting by Mateo Rosiles, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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