HPISD Adapts Programs, Staffing to Address Enrollment Drop
Highland Park ISD will make staffing adjustments to address declining student enrollment, superintendent Mike Rockwood announced in a Jan. 23 email.
In the next school year, the district plans to rework its elementary school science lab and Spanish programs. No HPISD teachers will lose their jobs due to the changes, Rockwood wrote.
The district plans to discontinue its science lab rotation teacher, though grade-level teachers will continue using science labs on a regular basis. Instead of maintaining a Spanish teacher at every campus, teachers serving elementary students will rotate between schools.
Elementaries will also receive district support instead of having a dedicated or shared campus instructional technologist.
“Rather than waiting until the summer, we’re also making these decisions early enough to make sure we find the right place for all of our valued employees,” Rockwood wrote. “In the short term, we’ll continue to look for staffing adjustments — rather than cuts — at the secondary level to ensure we are staffed efficiently based on the state funding formulas and our student enrollment.”
The email included a chart that showed that although enrollment has declined by 641 students since the 2017-18 school year, the number of teachers employed by HPISD has remained constant at 454.
The chart’s final line included enrollment of 5,900 students — the level HPISD expects to reach in 2029 — and 391 teachers.
The amount of funding HPISD receives from the state is dependent on student enrollment, Rockwood wrote in his email. The district has been absorbing more than $6 million in staffing inefficiencies based on the enrollment decline. If enrollment reaches the projected 5,900 students in 2029, HPISD would see another $4 million reduction in funding.
How to right-size HPISD’s staff in the face of declining enrollment has long been a concern of the district’s board of trustees.
During an April work session on the 2024-25 budget, assistant superintendent for business services Scott Drillette and board members discussed how the district could continue increasing staff salaries, a priority for attracting and retaining top talent.
“We could be paying our staff much better if we weren’t overstaffed. Does that sound right?” board member Blythe Koch asked during the conversation.
“That is exactly right,” Drillette said.
The district has already cut several central office positions, Rockwood said in a video message attached to his email. He described the adjustments as proactive measures to ensure that the district remains a good steward of tax dollars and does not need to make more negative, reactive changes in the future.
Declining enrollment is an issue for school districts statewide. Plano ISD recently announced plans to shutter four schools, and Coppell ISD’s school board voted in September to close Pinkerton Elementary, the district’s oldest elementary school, media outlets have reported.
Click HERE to read HPISD’s news release on the staffing and program changes.
Do ya think the expansive bond package that tore down our sturdy time tested functioning old schools and rebuilt new schools and remodeled others then added one more with the name of the bond package pusher was over sold? Has the board followed the money trail for same?