By Edmond Ortiz
Leaders of a Northeast Side school district have a clearer idea of the 16 campuses that they may have to consider for closure, consolidation or other changes in order to shore up operational efficiencies in a time of plateaued student enrollment.
But a slightly higher-than-expected enrollment in the new school year is giving North East Independent School District officials hope that expanded career and technical education and open enrollment practices will boost the district’s fortunes.
Schools eyed for closure or consolidation?
North East ISD trustees on Sept. 14 were briefed on how the district is addressing declines in student enrollment and recommendations from the NEISD’s efficiency committee.
One of those suggestions regarded the potential closure or consolidation of schools that serve fewer than 450 students, where less than 60% of campus space is utilized, and where the cost of serving students is more than 5% the overall districtwide average.
Elementary schools meeting those criteria, according to NEISD officials, are: Castle Hills, Colonial Hills, Dellview, Harmony Hills, Northwood, Oak Grove, Ridgewood, Serna, Regency Place, Montgomery, Northern Hills, Redland Oaks, Oak Meadow, Wetmore, Canyon Ridge, and Las Lomas.
Montgomery Elementary School in unincorporated Bexar County, east of Windcrest, has the lowest student enrollment of the 16 schools – 232, and only 24% of that campus is being utilized. Dellview Elementary School in the Balcones Heights are has an enrollment of 270.
No action on the issue was scheduled at the Sept. 14 meeting, but Superintendent Anthony Jarrett said he and fellow district leaders must be open, direct and honest with NEISD families and staff about the possibility of closing or consolidating some campuses in a larger effort to improve the district’s financial picture.
“We’re going to have to start having conversations about some of these smaller campuses and the enrollment and the cost per student. It’s not a conversation that is easy to have, but it is necessary based on our roles,” Jarrett said. “This is not something we want to do, but it’s something we’re going to need to do.”
Board President David Beyer agreed: “This is not what we came here to do, but it is a job that we are presented with.”
Beyer urged community members and educators to share their questions and concerns as discussions proceed toward district staff recommendations and any final decisions that might be rendered by the school board.
“Please reach out to us. Let your voice be heard. We’ll listen. We’re not going to get everything we want. We’ll just lay that out right now,” Beyer added. “That’s the reality of it. But the seven of us will do our best to figure out what that balance is and it’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be fun.”
A glimmer of hope
While district leaders said it is best to be frank about NEISD’s financial landscape, they added that new and ongoing measures could prove beneficial to the district’s long-term future.
NEISD officials said enrollment could incrementally rise with the growth of early college high schools, and the expansion of specific magnet programs to support a law and legal studies early college high school, and to support programs centered around artificial intelligence and machine learning.
NEISD is also expanding entrepreneurship course offerings from two to five campuses, and launching a medical career-centered early college at Churchill High School, where the program will could help students meet every prerequisite towards a four-year health science degree.
Aside from diversifying career and technical educational offerings, NEISD’s decision to introduce open enrollment ahead of the 2026-2027 school year helped to bump up student enrollment in the new academic year.
District officials had originally projected 51,088 enrolled students starting the year, but to date, the actual count is 51,317. However, that total is still below the 53,732 students that NEISD had enrolled in 2025-2026. More than 68,000 students were enrolled in the district in 2014-2015.
According to Susie Lackorn, NEISD’s budget and financial analysis director, interdistrict transfers partially contributed to the uptick in student enrollment. The district accepted 316 of 414 applications from such families.
“That decision actually got us to meet our projections and actually exceed it,” Jarrett said about the NEISD board’s decision to introduce open enrollment.
“Essentially, we could be right at the (projected enrollment) number or risk being below it. So, this is actually putting us in a better position as we move forward, but there’s more tough decisions ahead of us.”
