PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Editor's note: The video above was published on Jan. 20.
The Pflugerville Independent School District is closer to deciding on an option for realigning campus boundaries – and one option would result in closing one school.
KVUE's media partners at the Austin American-Statesman report that a district panel has come up with two plans to finalize the schools in the district. The first plan, called the "elementary plan 9," would close Dessau Elementary School. The second plan, called "high school plan 3," would close no campuses and instead transfer some students from the overcrowded Weiss High School.
High School Plan 3 would move the students from Weiss to Connally High and Pflugerville High to stop it from going over capacity. This rezoning of students would also allow all three high schools to stay in 5A UIL category. Additionally, none of the schools would go over capacity for five years and any school designated as 5A could save money while hosting in-district events.
In December, the district announced it was considering closing several elementary schools and rezoning the boundaries for all grade levels. The Statesman report said that district officials cited declining attendance rates and a lack of state funds for the projected $12 to $14 million budget deficit.
The original plan put multiple elementary schools on the chopping block, including:
- Parmer Lane
- River Oaks
- Dessau
- Spring Hill
- Brook Hollow
- Pflugerville
The list was later narrowed to Dessau, River Oaks and Parmer Lane elementaries.
If Elementary Plan 9 was enacted, students at Dessau Elementary would be transferred to Delco, Pflugerville and Wieland elementaries. This would result in a transfer of 213 students to Delco, 153 to Wieland and 202 to Pflugerville. To accommodate the new students, 129 students from Delco would also be sent to Copperfield Elementary.
The only school that would go over capacity within the next five years is Pflugerville Elementary.
The closing of Dessau would not save the district money, according to the Statesman report, as the district is opening Hidden Lake Elementary next fall, which will cost around $3 million.
Read the full report from the Austin American-Statesman.