SAN ANTONIO – Edgewood ISD will host the first of three community meetings on Thursday to discuss the issues it faces with dropping student enrollment.
In a video launched a week ago, the district explained that a special task force would look at possible changes, including merging schools or programs.
Texas Tribune public education reporter Brian Lopez says “right-sizing” is something inner-city urban school districts in north Texas are also considering. He says factors like competition by charter schools, homeschooling, declining birthrates and the housing market are common denominators.
Lopez said school leaders have to be open and transparent about the hard decisions needed to save the district.
“You’re never going to get a community to get behind you necessarily, right? You know, there might be people that understand, but that doesn’t take away from the anger they might feel or those emotions that their community school might be getting shut down,” Lopez said.
KSAT looked at total school enrollments for other area school districts and found the following:
Northside ISD
Northside ISD reports a decrease in its enrollment:
2023-2024: 100,824 (as of 10/16/2023)
2022-2023: 102,719
2021-2022: 102,377
2020-2021: 103,151
North East ISD
North East ISD is also seeing a small decline:
2023-2024: 57,323
2022-2023: 59,007
2021-2022: 59,830
2020-2021: 60,483
Boerne ISD
Meanwhile, there’s been a student population growth in some rural communities as the population shifts.
In 2022, Boerne ISD reported a record breaking enrollment:
2021-2022 : 10,268
2020-2021 : 9,766
New Braunfels ISD
New Braunfels ISD has also seen an uptick:
2021-2022: 9,671
2020-2021: 9,282
Medina Valley ISD
Medina Valley ISD has seen one of the fastest growing enrollments in the state.
The community meetings for Edgewood ISD are from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on the following dates:
- Oct. 19, 2023 at Kennedy High School Auditorium
- Oct. 20, 2023 at Fine Arts Academy Theater
- Oct. 23, 2023 at Memorial High School Auditorium