LEANDER, Texas — The Leander Independent School District invited parents to give feedback Monday night ahead of a proposal its Board of Trustees will hear to consolidate several schools next month.
Tensions were high Monday night as Cypress Elementary School parents tried to wrap their minds around a plan to consolidate their cherished campus with Naumann Elementary.
"I think that the culture of our school is really special," Parent and P.T.A. Secretary Nicole Krauss said. "And I don't necessarily think that things that are, you know, decades in the making, are that easy to be replicated."
Leander ISD Superintendent Bruce Gearing says underfunding from the state has forced them to look closely at falling enrollment at Cypress.
"The school board has been discussing for almost four years now how to manage the high growth that we have in the northern part of the district, but then this declining student population in both the southern part and the central part," Gearing said. "These are community schools, and so breaking that apart and combining them together to create a new community will certainly be difficult."
He says it's not just about the budget, but outcomes.
"This is also about the student experience and what's best for our students, and the way that we manage that in Leander ISD," Gearing said.
Krauss says performance is far from an issue.
"The idea that you have this place with a historical marker in front of it, an A-rated school that is doing so well, both in terms of education and in terms of community support, it would be such a loss," Krauss said.
When it comes to saving money, she'd like to see the district explore other options.
"There's no doubt that the district is faced with a very difficult decision. I think where we're coming at it from a collaborative perspective," Krauss said. "There are so many other viable ways to save revenue, to generate revenue that would keep our doors open."
Matthew Ormiston now has his third child at Cypress Elementary.
"I was kind of hoping that, you know, by the time we were all said and done, that we would have had a child at Cypress for 13 years," Ormiston said.
He thinks it's irresponsible for the school board to make such a big decision in less than six months.
"I just feel like that's extremely aggressive, and I just worry that they are rushing to a conclusion without exploring all the alternatives," Ormiston said.
This is the kind of feedback Gearing says he wants to hear at these community conversations.
"We don't expect that everybody is going to be happy walking away, but we want to make sure that they certainly feel heard," Gearing said.
Parents just hope they're really listening.
"They had invited us to be a part of the solutions. We're here to present a bunch of solutions and hopefully collaboratively come to a better conclusion than shutting down Cypress." Krauss said. "Aside from the incredible emotion and the genuine love that we have for this school, this community, these people, our children, there are so many other viable options to pursue."
There will be two other community conversations this week for other schools under consideration for consolidation, including Tuesday and Thursday.
A proposal will be taken to the Board on September 18, and then a final vote will happen on October 9.