At the end of 2024, the announcement that three Lubbock ISD schools were to be closed or consolidated led to many questions from Lubbock parents on policy and transparency, with the district saying more closures would be considered.
Town halls were held across the city during the fall semester of 2025 to give the district input from the community, and in January of this year, Lubbock ISD’s Board of Trustees approved a “District Optimization Plan.”
The plan gives Lubbock ISD standards to determine which area schools will be considered for consolidation or closure.
Lubbock ISD’s Chief Innovation Officer, Ken Casarez, spoke to the school board about the plan in their January meeting.
“Some of the key themes from our engagement with the community is that they understand that difficult decisions are necessary,” Casarez said. “Given the enrollment and other trends facing our district today, the importance of communication, clarity, and transparency around this framework, also making sure that we look at multiple years of data, not just one snapshot, but multiple years.”
The district will assess each school, in part, based on three attributes over a three-year average:
1. If the overall enrollment drops below 450 students,
2. If the school is utilizing 70% or less of available facilities,
3. And if the school’s per-pupil spending goes above 5% of the district average
Lubbock ISD’s optimization plan indicates the current process would focus on elementary or middle schools, but that could change in the future. For now, the district expects the consolidation assessment process and discussion to start in the fall.
To give families information on where each school currently sits in terms of the consolidation criteria, Lubbock ISD has created a dashboard with summarized data on performance metrics, staff experience and enrollment. You can find the LISD data dashboard here.
Lubbock ISD is holding town hall meetings to discuss the optimization plan with families. You do not have to live or attend schools in the specific district to attend the meetings.
Find a full list of the meetings and locations below:
- Thursday, April 9: District 2 Town Hall at Estacado High School, 1504 E. Itasca St., from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Monday, April 13: District 5 Town Hall at Mackenzie Middle School, 5402 12th St., from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Monday, April 20: District 3 Town Hall at Coronado High School, 4910 29th Dr,, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Monday, April 27: District 4 Town Hall at Monterey High School, 3211 47th St., from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Tuesday, May 5: Virtual Town Hall (Streaming information to be provided at a later date.)