UPDATED October 11, 2025

By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News

The Leander ISD Board of Trustees voted on a resolution on threshold criteria that would trigger the district to implement such things as small school models, campus closures, and more during its September 30 special meeting. It was also made clear at that meeting that the board would not be taking a final vote on school closures at its October 9 regular meeting because it needs more data and discussions. For months, October 9 was the targeted deadline for the board’s final decision on whether or not LISD would consolidate schools. 

“We want to do this right and be very intentional,” said Anna Smith, board president. “We are asking for a lot of data…. I really need the board to send in your questions to administration to be very clear what we need so that way when we come to (those meetings), we are ready to dig in and just go at it.”

Smith talked about scheduling several meetings with the board to discuss information that the LISD administration is to provide to the board in the weeks ahead. 

September 18 board meeting

At last month’s September 18 regular board meeting, the Leander ISD administration was set to give its recommendation to keep schools open and to update staffing guidelines for low-enrolled elementary campuses for the next school year. 

LISD Superintendent Bruce Gearing began to outline revising staffing guidelines at elementary campuses with low enrollment for 2026–27. But before Gearing got very far into the agenda item “Discussion of Long-Range Planning Recommendation”,  Smith and several other trustees shared that they needed more time to review the documents from the administration that they had gotten earlier that afternoon.

If the administration’s recommendation is approved, Steiner Ranch Elementary would be saved from being closed and consolidated with Laura W. Bush and River Ridge elementary schools for at least the next school year.

Also during the September 18 regular board meeting, trustees were asked to provide input on a resolution regarding “Financial Sustainability and Long-Range Facility Planning for Leander Independent School District”. The purpose of the resolution is to establish a clear process, define roles, outline timelines, and identify information the board needs to make key decisions affecting the 2026–27 school year and beyond. 

September 30 special board meeting

At the September 30 special board meeting, trustees discussed and modified the language in that draft resolution and approved a final resolution just before midnight. All seven board members voted in favor of the resolution (more details in Board Briefs article on this page).

Also at this September 30 special meeting, board members pointed out that it is not clear what is meant by “revising staffing guidelines” for low enrollment schools which was the recommendation from LISD administration two weeks earlier. More time is needed to define that as well as other items.

Several board members indicated they need more information from the LISD administration to be able to vote on criteria that triggers such things as school consolidations and closures among other things. 

There was some talk about innovative models and realistic timelines to execute them and what that would look like.

“The question I want to know, as we make the decisions for our campuses, are we making sustainable long-term decisions for our campuses that ensure our students are thriving, that we’ve really thought about all avenues and the opportunities out into our district,” Bode said.

The passed resolution is telling the district to collect data, get numbers and get details for the board to analyze.

“How can we talk about threshold criteria before we talk about (data),” Bode said. “We want to talk about thresholds at next meeting but the resolution says we want the district to establish a process, we want them to bring us data on a process for addressing this. And we’re not going to use that information they give us to establish criteria?” 

Board president Smith said she wished Bode would have brought that up earlier in the meeting but Bode said she did bring it up earlier.

Bode restated what she said earlier in the meeting: “I wanted to have a discussion about the hub and spoke models, I wanted to have a discussion about small schools, I wanted to have discussions about enrollment analysis, to find the minimum viable enrollment. I want to talk about viable school community, robust student experience, comprehensive academic programming. What are we doing when we’re talking about these criteria numbers and how it impacts those things? That’s what I said when we had the original discussion.”

Board member Francesca Romans questioned the timing of when decisions need to be made. 

“My concern is that financially we have to do the timeline, we have to do the criteria with where we are right now,” Romans said. “How long do we have to… ‘buy time’ or wait or try different ideas and implementations?” 

Administration does not have a clear answer to that at the moment but is expected to gather information to help answer that question.

Throughout the board meeting, discussions also included the impacts of pre-K and how to look at that in the equation. Additionally schools that are over capacity, how could thresholds in place affect those scenarios.

Also the point was made that the entire district was not heard from regarding the idea of keeping all schools open, and what that could mean as budget cuts would have to come from some place else. 

As for next steps, the board will have more meetings to discuss data that the district will provide them in the weeks ahead.

“I do believe this board will be holding administration accountable for getting that data, Smith said. “This is the end of the road here, we got to do something.”

Smith complimented the board on staying after it and passing the resolution. She reminded them there is still a lot of processing left to do. 

“I know this was hard and long and great discussion but this is what we gotta do to get us back on track,” Smith said.