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At least 100 people gathered at Wilshire Elementary on Wednesday evening to learn more about a North East Independent School District proposal to permanently close Wilshire and two other schools.
NEISD Superintendent Sean Maika told parents, children, and other attendees that his recommendation to close Driscoll Middle School, Clear Spring Elementary and Wilshire Elementary comes after years of looking at ways to respond to declining enrollment.
“Even before I became the superintendent, I started looking at this problem,” Maika said. “Today, one of the board members happened to be at my office, and I showed the map from 2017 that I actually began tracking enrollment loss.”
But parents in the audience said they were taken off guard by the speed of the process. “For many of us parents, this is a rushed decision. We work 60 plus hours a week, and we don't have time to go to board meetings. We found out less than a month ago that our school is possibly going to close down,” said Wilshire parent Justin Ogden.
Maika recommended closing the schools in December. Trustees are slated to vote on the recommendation in February. If approved, the schools will permanently close at the end of the current school year.
Maika started the Wilshire community meeting with a presentation outlining the district’s reasons for closing schools.
He said NEISD has lost nearly 12,000 students over the past 10 years, dropping from nearly 68,000 students to a little over 56,000, and that the district’s buying power has dropped by $1,340 per student since 2020 due to inflation.

Maika said he made a commitment to cut the budget by $38 million in 2023 when trustees approved a pay raise, and his recommendation to close Wilshire, Clear Spring and Driscoll is part of fulfilling that commitment.
“Go watch it. June the 12th, 2023. That was the very public facing discussion between myself and the board,” Maika said. “I explained that as we work through this, these decisions will become more and more difficult.”
NEISD had a $38 million budget deficit in 2023, largely due to the pay increase. NEISD’s budget deficit increased to $62.5 million this school year.
After district officials completed their presentation, community members were invited to find a staff member stationed around the room and ask them questions. But after multiple members of the audience protested, NEISD officials gave audience members a chance to ask Maika questions into a microphone.
“How much are you actually going to save by closing the school once you factor in continuing to pay the maintenance people, utilities, bringing in the new program, busing our children over to a new school?” asked Wilshire parent Judy Martinez.
Maika said NEISD would save money by needing fewer teachers. Under the closure plan, students currently attending Wilshire will be moved to either East Terrell Hills Elementary or Northwood Elementary. Maika said those two schools will only need two more teachers each in order to accommodate the 188 students currently attending Wilshire.
“Closing this school, just without even factoring that in, is about $1 million,” Maika said.
After the meeting, Martinez said she wasn't sure Maika’s answer was accurate.
“I don't think he answered that correctly, because there's no plan yet for what's going to be in this building,” Martinez said, adding that she’d like to see more transparency, including a breakdown of the numbers.
Judy Martinez and Justin Ogden are part of group of NEISD parents working together to push back against the proposal to close schools. They created a website called the NEISD Community Advocates, and they shared a list of positions with everyone who attended the meeting. Although they prefer that the schools stay open, they started by asking for trustees to delay voting on the closures.
The NEISD Community Advocates were supported by several San Antonio ISD parents at the Wilshire meeting. SAISD parent Sam Durandard said NEISD parents contacted them for help with organizing because the SAISD parents had experience organizing after their own school closures last year.

During the Q&A, Durandard asked Maika why NEISD wasn’t waiting until the Texas Legislature voted on education funding this year.
“Gov. Abbott has repeated many times that the passage of the school voucher bill would be accompanied with increased funding for public schools,” Durandard said. “Why do we insist on going to a vote in February, when we presumably will have a new state budget by June?”
Maika said he couldn't hold out hope in the state legislature. “We have to make some cuts. Last year the board was unable to make them. We did nothing, which then, as you run a deficit, compounds your deficit,” Maika said. “Why February? Because that gives us enough time to get it right for your child. Because if we waited until May, I promise you it will not be a smooth transition,” he added.
But for parents like Justin Ogden, losing Wilshire Elementary will be a blow no matter when it happens. Ogden said when his daughter moved to Wilshire last year, she made a lot of progress.
“She went from reading below her third grade to now she's in advanced reading, and that's because of this school. So that's why I'm so passionate about this specifically. I mean, I'm about to cry a little bit, but this is our home,” Ogden said.
NEISD will hold two more community meetings to answer questions about the proposal to close schools. The second meeting at Clear Spring Elementary was Thursday at 6 p.m. The final meeting will be at Driscoll Middle School at 6 p.m. on Jan. 29.