The Corpus Christi (Texas) district will close seven schools before the 2026-27 school year.
The Caller Times reports that a split school board voted to close Fannin, Kostoryz, Sanders and Travis elementary schools and Browne, Haas and Martin middle schools.
The district proposed the school closures and consolidations after years of budget deficits. This year alone, Corpus Christi is operating under a deficit of at least $27.5 million. The district has seen enrollment decline by more than 4,000 students since 2019-20.
Since 2008, the district has balanced building new Southside schools with renovating and replacing schools in other areas of town. At the time, the district predicted growth and built large schools that today sit half empty.
However, the district failed to win voter support for a 2024 bond proposal that would have consolidated Kostoryz, Sanders and Yeager elementary schools and Houston, Fannin and Travis elementary schools into two new school buildings.
Last spring, the district administration proposed closing Kostoryz and Schanen Estates elementary schools, but the board didn’t support school closures at the time. A few months later, the district brought back the school closure discussion
