Editor’s note: Transcript provided by CoverGov.
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD trustees voted to close Dove and Bransford elementary schools to confront declining enrollment, rising costs and other factors.
During a special meeting Dec. 10 that ran nearly six and a half hours, the trustees adopted the recommendations of a committee composed of parents, community members and district employees.
Passed in separate 5-2 votes, GCISD will:
- Consolidate Dove Elementary with Cannon and Silver Lake elementary schools.
- Consolidate Bransford Elementary with Colleyville and O.C. Taylor elementary schools. This decision will also rezone a portion of Colleyville Elementary with Glenhope Elementary and rezone a portion of O.C. Taylor with Heritage Elementary.
Trustees Matt Foust and Dalia Begin voted no and attempted to delay the decisions.
“This is a sad day for us, for everybody up here,” said Foust, who questioned whether the committee’s deliberations were transparent enough, compared to school board meetings.
Trustee Mary Humphrey countered that the community is aging with fewer children than the district once had.
“We don’t have any full elementary schools, not even close,” she said.
Consolidating schools will not diminish educational opportunities for GCISD students, Humphrey added.
“It is not our buildings that make us great. It is our people,” Humphrey said.
Dove Elementary School in the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD is one of two schools that trustees voted Dec. 10 to close. (Scott Nishimura | Fort Worth Report)
Begin sought to delay the Bransford vote for 90 days to explore whether its current fine arts program could be widened in appeal.
More broadly, she said the district, which has a limited open enrollment program under which students from outside the district can enroll in GCISD schools, should consider opening that up.
She pointed out numerous schoolchildren who live in the district’s boundaries who do not attend GCISD schools as their families choose other options, including homeschooling.
“We have to compete,” she said. “If we do not compete, we will continue to lose students. This is an opportunity for us to rise up and compete.”
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD’s enrollment has declined by 1,476 students since 2019, according to the posted agenda for the Dec. 10 meeting. The district began the school year with 11,818 students.
The meeting drew 75 speakers, with most requesting a delay in the closures, and the meeting became quickly contentious. Many of the speakers reminded the board that three members are up for reelection in 2026.
“We heard several times about the elections coming up in May,” board member A.J. Pontillo said during the meeting.
“You all can vote me out. You can vote Mary out. The hard things don’t go away,” he said. “They’re still going to be up here. Whether it’s me or somebody else, you’re going to need to make sure that you elect people that are willing to make the hard decisions, that are willing to take the hard things thrown at this dais these last four months.”
District staff will begin putting together a plan for the school consolidations next year.
Eric Zarate is a freelance journalist. Scott Nishimura is a senior editor at the Fort Worth Report.
To learn more about how the transcript that informed this report was created, visit covergov.com.
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