Parents teared up and wiped their eyes with the sleeves of their Valley View Elementary School sweaters Tuesday night after the Eanes school board unanimously voted to close the 43-year old school when the semester ends.
The decision, said parents who gathered at the meeting to voice opposition, felt unceremonious.
The school board also voted 5-2 to end a popular elementary-level Spanish immersion program, despite vehement opposition from parents gathered at the meeting. Board members Ellen Balthazar and Kim McMath opposed the motion.
School board members hope these decisions will help the district avoid the $3.3 million deficit it’s facing this year and a projected $6.3 million shortfall in the next academic year. Eanes’ fiscal woes mirror those of other districts across the state, where school boards have been shuttering campuses, slashing programs and reducing staff to temper budget deficits.
Parents passionate about their campus lined up Tuesday to implore board members to find cost savings elsewhere.
Valley View’s enrollment is lower than that of other elementary schools, but it hasn’t been given enough time to try to attract new students, said Lauren Amador, the parent of a Valley View fourth grader and a seventh grader.
“We’re left explaining to our fifth graders, who started in COVID, that they can’t graduate from Valley View,” Amador said.
District administrators plan to send Valley View students to Barton Creek Elementary School, which is about 6 miles away.
Valley View’s closure
Board members insisted the school’s closure comes as a result of declining enrollment and severe budgetary constraints. The district estimates it will save $2 million by closing the school.
“We will not compromise the exemplary education and quality instruction for which Eanes ISD is known,” Superintendent Jeff Arnett said.
To parent Melynda Einhaus, it feels like the Valley View community has been unfairly targeted and that the district hasn’t fulfilled its promise to try increasing the school’s enrollment.
Einhaus has a first and third grade students at Valley View, as well as a seventh grader.
“We definitely feel like we’ve been lied to, deceived,” Einhaus said.
Nestor Guzman,7, plays with Sophia Riggs,7, at play time. Students from Valley View Elementary School had the opportunity to visit and play with their parents and peers during playtime on Friday, September 29, 2023, which was followed by lunch and ice cream. Eanes ISD school Valley View Elementary has drastically decreased enrollment numbers. The district is trying to determine what to do with the school. It may involve redoing attendance boundaries, transforming the school into a K-3 center or an early childhood center, etc. The district is actively exploring all options to ensure the most effective educational outcome for students.
Families have poured their time, love and money into the school, such as for a new STEM lab, said Jennie Bartholomew, who has a Valley View fourth grader, as well as a seventh and ninth graders.
Parents who spoke at the meeting also worry that sending Valley View students to Barton Hills will overcrowd that campus.
By the numbers
Valley View has far fewer students than any other Eanes elementary school — with only 275 students compared with at least 500 at all other campuses, according to district data. The school is only operating at half its capacity, but none of Eanes’ elementary campuses are at maximum capacity.
Facing declining enrollment at Valley View, the district last year tried to reverse course by adding Spanish immersion classes to the school and changing its transfer policies.
Board President James Spradley turned his ire about the funding situation to state lawmakers. The Legislature hasn’t given public schools a necessary funding boost since 2019, he said.
“We’ve used up all the great options and now we’re looking at all the other stuff we have to do to close this budget gap,” Spradley said.
Spanish immersion
The board’s decision to end the Spanish immersion program also generated groans from the gathered community members. The program, in its seventh year, is designed to teach English-speaking students Spanish starting in Kindergarten, and has attracted out-of-district students to transfer into Eanes.
Ending the program will save about $600,000, according to the district.
Spanish immersion was still a relatively new program and may have faced blame for bringing change, said Balthazar, a board member.
“I really think to walk away at this point is a very serious mistake and one that will have consequences,” Balthazar said.
Parents had pledged hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the program next year, but some board members said they didn’t feel comfortable building a budget based on pledges that weren’t yet in hand or couldn’t be guaranteed in future years.
The budget crunch felt like an excuse to slash the program, said Erich Oswald, whose first and fourth graders are both out-of-district transfers at Barton Creek Elementary in the Spanish immersion program.
“It feels like every year, the program is on the chopping block for one reason or another,” Oswald said.
Slashing the budget
Like many districts in Texas, Eanes is slogging through a list of options to reduce the deficit shadowing its budget.
If the deficit grows to $6.3 million next year as projected, the district’s reserves will dip below its required fund balance, chief financial officer Chris Scott said.
“Our fund balance is getting to a level that if it goes much lower, we’re going to have real cashflow issues in the fall and making payroll will be difficult,” Scott said.
The district has already cut extra class periods for secondary teachers meant to plan and collaborate with their colleagues, a $2 million savings, Scott said.
The district could also consider other options, such as freezing staff salaries or putting forth a tax rate election, which would ask voters to raise their property tax rate, he said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Valley View Elementary, Spanish immersion program shutter at Eanes ISD