By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
More than 500 people filled Canyon Ridge Middle School gym on August 28 to give feedback to Leander ISD about the idea of closing Steiner Ranch Elementary and consolidating it with the Laura Welch Bush and River Ridge elementary schools.
One of many impactful moments of the five hour meeting was when a trio of fifth grade girls shared how they love their SRE school. They ended up singing the Steiner Ranch Stallion song “We’re Steiner Ranch Stallions, We’re a #1 school, Burgundy, silver, navy, our colors are cool…” Hundreds of others joined in.
LISD is facing a $18 million budget deficit and saving money is the main reason for the potential closure of SRE. District leaders pointed to declining enrollment, underfunding of public education, and these local elementary campuses operating below 60% capacity as reasons for the possible moves.
“We have to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and we have to make sure that our district as a whole remains solvent,” Superintendent Bruce Gearing said at the meeting.
The district presented three different proposals, and in addition to the Steiner schools, the proposals also involve Cypress and Faubion elementaries consolidating with Naumann and Westside schools:
- Vacate Campus & Consolidate with nearby campus, which has a total estimated cost savings of $4,151,700
- Implement updated staffing guidelines for low-enrolled elementary campuses, which have a total estimated cost savings of $1,777,200
- Hybrid Utilization, depending on unique circumstances, has a total estimated cost savings of $3,549,700
Most of the LISD Board members were at the meeting including Paul Gauthier, Place 7. He believes the district isn’t saving money properly.
“It only costs $1.5 million to operate the school, and $1.2 million to operate it at half capacity. We’re not spending the money correctly,” Gauthier told KXAN. “The populations will regentrify after a certain amount of time, and it will cost you more money.”
Local parents have been meeting throughout the summer, sounding the alarm over these proposals.
“In May, they told us that our school was on the list to be potentially closed. We’ve been asking for answers to our questions for months,” shared Kaycee Parker, PTA president for SRE. She has a third grader at SRE and her two older kids also went there. She spoke with several local TV stations about the issues. “It just seems rushed, it seems foolhardy, it seems like it’s going to be a bad decision, and it’s just reactionary.”
Gearing shared multiple times that the district is in a difficult position.
“The chronic underfunding of public education in the state of Texas has left us with large deficit budgets for the last two years,” Gearing said. “As elementary schools are built for 800 students, and so when they’re below 60% capacity, we are really going to have to look at how we staff those schools appropriately.”
The three elementary schools are under 60% capacity, but parents don’t think that is enough of a reason to justify potentially closing down the schools. They would rather like to see a small-school model used. According to Texas Education Agency Accountability ratings, each of these schools earned a grade A.
Dara Irsfeld spoke early in the meeting and she is concerned about the proposed changes. “We moved from California in 2021, our children were not even close to elementary school age yet, and we knew we wanted them to be here in Steiner and go to the elementary schools here because of how well they were rated,” shared Irsfeld, according to reports. “I don’t think they should change anything.”
“I have a four-year-old and a one-year-old, and they will attend the public schools here when they’re old enough,” shared Katie Green, another concerned parent. “It is going to affect teacher-student ratios, it’s going to affect traffic.”
Around 60 people spoke up at the meeting.
“We had 474 seats set out in the gym. With most of them filled along with the number of folks who filled the first few rows of bleachers, our best guess is more than 500 (attended),” shared Crestina Hardie, LISD chief communications officer. “We had several speakers come up several times. Again, best guess would be around 60, including a dozen or so student speakers.”
Parents challenged the district on its ideas. Topics brought up included: safety in case of a wildfire, future over-capacity concerns, quality of education, and the idea of the southern portion of the district leaving LISD. Young students made some of the most well-received comments of the night.
“I really don’t want it to close. It’s one of my favorite schools,” shared Connor Parker, SRE student.
Ella, another SRE student added, “I’d be really sad if it closed because we have these really good teachers that are really kind and nice.”
The majority of the SRE staff was at the meeting. SRE Principal Britteny Clifford was surrounded by teachers the entire meeting and was the first to ask how to help clean up after the meeting ended five hours later.
The district says it plans to present a proposal to the board on Sept. 18, with a final vote expected Oct. 9.
Prior to the August 28 meeting, the Steiner Ranch Master Association emailed residents.
What’s at stake for Steiner:
- If a school is closed, the property could be sold (use unknown), or repurposed for any number of LISD facilities (e.g., police department, alternative campuses, etc.).
- Neighborhood-wide home values can be affected when a community loses a school.
- Overcrowding risk: If you have children coming up, they may be placed in more crowded schools. The district’s demographer has acknowledged they don’t yet know the “stable” enrollment number, which raises real capacity concerns.
SRMA encouraged residents to send comments to LISD leadership at speakupforsteiner.com and to ask for transparent data on capacity, costs, and property plans.
