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The board of trustees for the Judson Independent School District voted to permanently close three elementary schools and one middle school Monday.
Judson administrators are slated to make recommendations on which schools to close on Saturday at 9 a.m. The board plans to vote on those recommendations on Monday, February 16.
Closing schools has been on the radar of San Antonio’s fourth largest school district for months as part of a multi-step approach to reducing the district’s significant budget deficit.
But a decision on which schools — and how many — was delayed while the board majority opened an investigation into Superintendent Milton Fields. Last week the board voted to start the process of firing him.
Interim Superintendent Mary Duhart-Toppen thanked the board for reaching a decision on how many schools to close Monday. She said Judson needs all the time they have left to redraw boundaries and ensure a smooth transition by next school year.
“We are already doing course selections across all of our secondary schools for going into next year,” Duhart-Toppen said. “The longer we wait, the longer it's going to take us to get ready for 26-27.”
Duhart-Toppen presented the board with the option of closing anywhere from two to five campuses on Monday, and recommended trustees close four: three elementary schools, and one middle school.
“We have three (high school) feeder patterns, so you can easily close one elementary school in each feeder pattern. It will make it easier to do an equal district distribution of consolidation,” Duhart-Toppen said. “It will also address the under-utilization that exists in every seat, every feeder pattern that we have.”
The interim superintendent said closing four campuses will save the district about $7 million, taking care of about 19% of Judson’s $37 million budget deficit.
According to a demography report from Zonda Demographics, Judson is projected to lose about 1,500 students over the next five years, dropping from its current enrollment of about 22,600 students to about 21,100 students by the fall of 2030.
Zonda recommended Judson close three to five elementary schools and one to two middle schools to accommodate the lower enrollment.
However, Assistant Superintendent Daniel Brooks said Monday that students on the north side of the district would have to ride the school bus for more than an hour if Judson closed more than three elementary schools.
Still, Duhart-Toppen said closing four schools at once would lower the risk of Judson needing to close more schools in a year or two.
“It will mean less changes in the future,” Duhart-Toppen said.
Duhart-Toppen said that, because of the district’s long, narrow shape, closing the four campuses will require a change in boundaries for almost all of Judson’s schools.
“We're going to have to, because (of the) way our district is made,” Duhart-Toppen said. “But I truly feel like if you're going to move boundaries, you're going to do it one time and do it right the first time.”
Stephanie Jones is one of the six trustees that voted to follow administrators’ recommendation to close three elementary schools and one middle school.
“I think anything less we'll be back to next year having to look at closing something else, and that would just disrupt where we redrew the lines and put those kids in campuses, and we need to minimize the impact to students as best we can,” Jones said.
Trustee José Macias Jr. was the lone no vote. He said he wanted to close only two schools this year in order to give Judson time to evaluate how the launch of private school vouchers affected enrollment.
Judson trustees briefly considered closing three schools last May, but reversed course after a public outcry. At the time, district leadership recommended waiting because closing schools so late in the year would have been difficult.
One elementary school, Coronado Village, closed at the end of last school year following a vote in December 2024.
Judson opened two new schools, Selma Elementary and Cibolo Creek Middle School, at the start of the 2025-2026 school year as part of the fulfillment of the 2022 bond.
