Four Richardson ISD Schools to Close. What’s The Impact on Housing? 

Richardson ISD voted unanimously in late March to close four elementary schools in an effort to cut costs in the wake of unfunded state mandates. Longtime former RISD trustee and Dave Perry-Miller Realtor Anne Foster said it’s always a tough decision to close or consolidate campuses, but it’s not likely to cause a mass exodus of home buyers and sellers. 

RISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum said the district needs to implement “Project RightSize” — a plan to address falling enrollment, shrinking classrooms, emptier schools, and a desire to pay more for Richardson’s teachers and programs, KERA reported on March 22. 

The information about plans to shutter Greenwood Hills, Springridge, Thurgood Marshall, and Spring Valley elementary schools wasn’t well-received by some parents, but Foster said it had to be done. 

“The school board did not want to raise their hands and close these schools,” she said. “The superintendent did not want to recommend it, but if they had not done that, they wouldn’t have any money to pay teachers in a year or two. People have to be realistic about the financial crunch that public schools are in.” 

The Financial Crunch on Public Schools

A school was closed and another two were combined while Foster was on the board of trustees from 1997 to 2006, she said. 

“This is not the first time this has happened and it probably won’t be the last time,” she said. “It’s so expensive to operate schools when some of them are at half capacity or just a little bit over.”  

Districts are paying for a full staff plus utilities and maintenance for schools that are operating at 60 percent, while they’re doing the same thing for another campus just up the road, Foster explained. 

“It just ultimately doesn’t work,” she said. “It doesn’t work well for the schools and it doesn’t work for taxpayer funds. It’s not a wise thing to do.” 

A $40 million budget gap is on the horizon for RISD in the next few years if the matter is not addressed, Foster said. The Richardson district isn’t the only one feeling pressure from the state. 

Fort Worth ISD announced the closure of a middle school last week, and Plano ISD also is looking at campus closures. 

Will School Closures Affect The Housing Market?

Richardson ISD covers Lake Highlands, the City of Richardson, a corner of Northwest Garland, and large swaths of North Dallas. 

Foster, who remains plugged into the public education scene and still attends RISD board meetings, said she has not heard “tremendous backlash” about combining elementary schools.

The concern is how the redistribution takes place. Some neighborhoods will be split, with students redistributed to one campus while their neighbors go to another. The district worked with a community advisory board, on which Foster served, to hash out the logistics. 

“There is some unhappiness [about the redistribution of students] but it’s not about the closures,” Foster said. 

The Richardson ISD neighborhoods are vibrant and attract homebuyers because they’re close to the heart of Dallas, the Realtor explained. 

“They’ve got a very enviable location,” she said. “They’ve got a high quality of life. These communities have a strong and engaging civic life. They have quality public schools that still attract so many people, and there are very few homes available in a lot of these communities.” 

Foster said in her neighborhood there are no for-sale signs. People moved there for the school system and stayed after their children graduated. People want to lock in their interest rates and there simply aren’t a lot of homes on the market in Richardson ISD. 

“These school closures aren’t going to impact the housing market in these communities because there are too many other factors at play,” Foster said. “I’ve seen this happen before, and it’s been barely a bump in the road. There may be a person here and there who wants to move but it’s not widespread.” 

Financial Stewardship For Public Education

Foster has worked as executive director of Raise Your Hand Texas and Parents for Public Schools. She started the advocacy group Realtors Supporting Richardson Schools. 

Districts throughout the U.S. are facing school closures because birth rates have dropped, Foster said. 

“This is something that’s going to be felt all the way through colleges and universities,” she said. “It’s being called an enrollment gap. We’re in a demographic change in terms of numbers and student population.” 

Texas hasn’t offered financial assistance for public education since 2019, Foster added. 

“That’s been tied up recently because the governor wants vouchers and he has held hostage bills that would have given funding to public schools because he hasn’t gotten the voucher bills passed,” she said. “That’s a problem. Inflation has been a problem. Insurance costs are up. There were unfunded mandates for security. When the legislature tells you that you have to have a security officer in every school and it’s going to cost $1 million to do that, and they don’t give you any money for that, that’s another million dollars.” 

The school closures will save about $10 million upfront and an additional $11 million annually, Barnum said in a March school board meeting. 

The superintendent said in the KERA report that the district has to control its financial stewardship. 

“There’s no perfect plan, but it’s the best plan that we can make moving forward to ensure the long-term sustainability of Richardson ISD,” she said. 

Closures will begin during the next school year, officials said.