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Consultants hired by the Northside Independent School District are compiling profiles of every campus in the district as part of a so-called “optimization” effort.
The optimization process could result in school closures. Other options include rezoning and programming changes.
At a board meeting on Tuesday, district officials said they were aiming to make recommendations of what changes to make in late November, with a final board vote in January 2027.
Olin Parker with the firm Civic Solutions Group updated the board Tuesday on his company’s work so far.
“Setting priorities at the beginning of this process allows us to make sure that we are objective in our analysis of every single campus, that we have an equitable and holistic review of every single Northside ISD school,” Parker said.
Parker said the campus profiles will be based on the priorities created from a community survey and brainstorming with district leadership.
Those priorities include academic achievement, student experience, facilities, and staff.
District administrators said they worked with Parker to identify the metrics used to measure those priorities, including either performance or growth on the State of Texas Assessment for Academic Readiness, or STAAR. Teacher retention and the number of behavior incidents reported on the campus that are violent or impact safety are also under consideration.
Some board members expressed concern over using STAAR as the sole metric of academic performance, and some of those metrics may change as the process continues.
The goal of the optimization process is to identify ways to both more efficiently use the district’s limited funding and help stabilize enrollment by attracting and retaining students.
“We're going to be hovering around 95,000 students next year. It's going to be about 14,000 students less than where we peaked not too long ago, six, seven years ago. And so, we've got some tough decisions before us,” Northside Superintendent John Craft said.
San Antonio’s largest school district was growing up until the 2019-2020 school year and previously projected continued enrollment growth.
Enrollment declines combined with state funding that has not kept up with inflation are forcing districts across the state to find ways to cut their budgets.
Northside is also planning to ask voters to approve both a tax rate election and a bond election in November. The Voter Approval Tax Rate Election, or VATRE, will increase the district’s operating revenue for things like teacher salaries. Bonds can be used to pay for infrastructure needs like school buses and building repairs.
Northside has a $38 million budget deficit this year. The district is in the process of looking for possible cuts before finalizing next year’s budget, but administrators said there’s not much left to cut under the district’s current framework.
Northside’s finance team estimates that the proposed VATRE would bring in an additional $45 million a year in operating revenue. The district is planning to ask voters for the final three golden pennies allowed under state law.
Texas school districts have access to up to 12 additional cents on the tax rate used for daily operations with voter approval, but the final nine cents, known as copper pennies, are less lucrative.
Five school districts in the San Antonio area went out for VATRE elections last November. The only VATRE to pass was in Boerne ISD. Boerne also asked voters for three golden pennies, which also has the advantage of being exempt from recapture. Boerne previously paid into recapture, often called Robin Hood. Northside has never paid into recapture, but it has come close in the past.
In addition to eliminating their budget deficit, Northside may use the $45 million from the VATRE for salary adjustments. The district hired the Texas Association of School Boards to conduct a pay study, with a goal of seeing how they can reach a $15 an hour minimum wage and better align pay structures.
TASB’s Amy Campbell presented initial findings to the board on Tuesday, with final recommendations slated for May.
District administrators said market adjustments would likely need to be phased in over several years, and that any salary increases approved this year would need to be tied to the passage of the VATRE, with pay adjusting retroactively if voters approve the tax rate.
