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La Joya ISD’s board of trustees voted to accept the administration’s recommendation to close and consolidate Kika de la Garza Elementary at their meeting last Wednesday.
Martin Muñoz, assistant superintendent for human resources, told the board decreasing enrollment at the campus is contributing to a budget deficit at the district.
He also said closing the Kika de La Garza campus will help the district meet Title 1 staffing requirements.
The district currently spends over $1 million a year on support staff for the campus, materials presented to the board said. Adding costs associated with teachers, that number goes up to $2.6 million.
Materials presented to the board put the school’s current enrollment at various figures between 279 and 289. A district spokesperson did not respond to a request for clarification on that figure.
However, any of those figures would indicate that enrollment at the district has dropped by somewhere around half since 2015, those materials indicate.
“District administration does not have any proposed uses for the building,” board materials said. “The building will continue to be maintained in case it is needed in the future.”
Current Kika de la Garza students and staff are likely headed to one of two elementary schools in the district that are within a mile of the soon-to-be-derelict school and have the capacity to hold hundreds more students.
At the end of the school year, staff from the school will be given priority and allowed to transfer to fill vacancies at Paredes Elementary or Diaz-Villarreal Elementary.
“All staff will be given priority to transfer and fill current district vacancies,” materials read.
Students east of Moorefield Road will be rezoned to Diaz-Villarreal. Students west of Moorefield will be rezoned to Paredes, while the transfer students at Kika de la Garza will be allowed to transfer to the school of their choice.
Falling enrollment has been an ongoing source of worry at La Joya and other Hidalgo County school districts, and Kika de la Garza isn’t the first campus to face consolidation.
McAllen ISD opted to close Bonham Elementary last year and has since moved to sell it.
Donna ISD chose to close an alternative high school in March.
Both decisions were prompted by low enrollment numbers.
