Aldine Independent School District trustees voted to close six schools, marking the ninth closure since 2024, as the North Houston district grapples with declining enrollment and a growing budget deficit.
During a meeting on Tuesday, trustees voted to close six schools in the district, including De Santiago and Stovall primary schools, which primarily serve pre-K and kindergarten students. The other four closures are elementary schools: Raymond, Smith, Oleson, and Eckert. The three schools closed in 2024 were all elementary schools as well.
During the board meeting, only one person spoke out against the closures—Carolina Perez, a parent from Raymond Elementary. She shared her concerns, saying, “Raymond has had a long, lasting positive impact on all my daughters. Seeing Raymond close down would be heartbreaking for my daughters and me. Please vote no to the closing of Raymond and the six other Aldine ISD schools.”
However, only one trustee voted against the school closures. Viola Garcia voted against every closure except Raymond Elementary, pleading with the board to prioritize increasing enrollment rather than closing schools.
Aldine ISD has experienced a 20 percent decline in student enrollment over the past decade, dropping from 70,000 students in 2014 to 56,419 students this year. Projections indicate that the district could lose another 9,000 students over the next decade, which would bring enrollment in 2034 to just 47,000 students.
In discussing the closures, trustees explained the factors contributing to declining enrollment.
A district study identified several key reasons including, “declining birth rates, increased housing costs, fewer new housing developments, and a rise in alternative education options, such as charter schools and homeschooling.”
These challenges are affecting many schools in the greater Houston area. For example, 75 percent of Houston ISD campuses have seen year-over-year enrollment declines, and Houston ISD as a whole has lost nearly 15 percent of its student population over the past decade.
Aldine ISD trustees stated that, due to the declining enrollment and the district’s $100 million deficit, they felt it was necessary to close the schools.
Trustee Randy Bates Jr. explained, “Everyone on this board has agonized during the discussions on this matter, but that doesn’t stop us from having the responsibility to be stewards of taxpayer money that is given to us.”
The closures are expected to save the district $35 million, providing significant relief to the budget deficit.
To ensure the closures were in the best interest of the district’s residents, the board used four criteria to guide its decision-making: facility utilization (the percentage of classroom space in use), financial data (identifying schools with the highest per-student costs), student academic success, and schools that had experienced a greater than 20 percent decline in enrollment.
Adrian Bustillos, the district’s chief transformation officer, noted on Monday in anticipation of Tuesday’s vote that 96 percent of the students from the closed schools would be relocated to campuses with the same or higher academic performance.
