AISD Board of Trustees Announces School Closures and Consolidations
December 16, 2024 – Amid declining enrollment numbers, the Amarillo ISD Board of Trustees decided to close Park Hills Elementary, Pleasant Valley Elementary, and Sunrise Elementary, the District’s three smallest elementary schools, at the end of the current school year, consolidating them with paired campuses beginning in August of 2025.
Small schools are not fiscally efficient to operate, especially with the current state funding model. At the meeting, board members expressed concern that the District cannot responsibly continue to delay this difficult decision. Throughout AISD’s 100+ year history, the District has made adjustments to correspond with changes and shifts in our community’s population, including closing and/or consolidating schools over the years. A notable example is Morrow Elementary, which is now the Region 16 ESC Head Start Cleveland Street Center. Amarillo ISD closed the school in 1965 when the development of I-40 and the Interchange caused many families to move out of the neighborhood, and enrollment dropped below 200. Morrow Elementary students then shifted to Glenwood and Sanborn Elementaries. Wilson Elementary, which many people drive by daily as they come through the Interchange, met a similar fate. It was closed in the 1970s because the Interchange brought the highway too close to the school grounds.
At this time, many school districts across the state are taking similar steps to deal with declining enrollments and budget shortfalls. Ultimately, AISD leaders believe that consolidating some smaller campuses will create even stronger schools with improved opportunities and services for all students. Our District will remain focused on our students and their future academic success as campus and district leadership will work closely with staff and families of the affected schools to make this transition as smooth as possible. No staff members will lose their jobs because of the consolidations.
2025-26 School Year Locator Maps
Use our School Locator system (Opens in a new window) to see what AISD schools are within your residential address attendance zone. The schools that appear after you input your residential address is your student’s “home campus” school within AISD.
Redrawn School Boundaries for Park Hills Elementary
Redrawn School Boundaries for Pleasant Valley Elementary
Redrawn School Boundaries for Sunrise Elementary
FutureReady: The Enrollment Crossroads
October 31, 2024 – Amarillo ISD faces a significant challenge. Shifting demographics in the city have contributed to a 13% decline in enrollment over the past decade. The AISD Board of Trustees and District Administration have been evaluating the impact of these population shifts on local schools and looking for solutions.
Prominent Texas Economist Dr. Ray Perryman attributed the enrollment loss to the declining birth rate nationally combined with a population decrease in Potter County. Seventy percent of AISD’s 55 campuses are in Potter County, where the population has decreased by 2%. Meanwhile, in the same time period, the population in Randall County, where AISD has significantly fewer campuses, has grown by 17%. Perryman noted the enrollment downturn in Amarillo mirrors what’s going on in other urban hubs around the state, resulting in the need to make some difficult decisions regarding the number of schools the District operates. “There’s not enough students for the buildings. It’s not practical to operate old buildings that are half full. That is what it comes down to; The math just doesn’t work.”
The District has adopted a strategic plan to transition from a neighborhood school model to a community school model. When Amarillo first adopted the neighborhood school model, education was simpler; many schools were just one-room schoolhouses. As Amarillo grew, so did the expansion of neighborhood schools. The neighborhood model served the District well for generations until recent years when enrollment started declining.
Superintendent Doug Loomis said the District will likely need to consolidate some campuses. “Amarillo isn’t immune to the demographic trends being seen across the state, but with careful planning, we can overcome these challenges.”
In March of 2023, the Board of Trustees created a 5-step guideline for consolidating schools, which starts with placing a campus with an enrollment under 300 students on a watchlist. When a school drops below 250 students, a formal consideration is triggered for closing the building and consolidating with a paired campus beginning the next school year.
In early December of 2024, the Board received the first watchlist based on the latest enrollment numbers. Eight schools fall under the 300-student criteria, including Park Hills Elementary at 174 students, Sunrise at 196, Pleasant Valley at 197, Allen 6th Grade Campus at 210, Landergin Elementary at 260, Travis 6th Grade Campus at 275, Lamar Elementary at 279, and Hamlet at 281. The final decision to consolidate a campus will require board approval.
Dr. Perryman said that despite financial challenges caused by the enrollment decline, AISD is one of a handful of school districts in the state to maintain a balanced budget, citing the District is doing a lot of things right.
“You start with a situation where this school district has over 70 percent of its students economically disadvantaged, yet it ranks in the top ten of the big school districts in the state. That is a district that has a lot of challenges to work with, yet people consistently perform. The building where this event was held (AmTech Career Academy) is probably the best career center in the state,” he explained. “There’s nothing more important to any community than its public education. Doing this kind of thing and going through this very difficult process is something that’s hard, but you come out stronger in the end.”
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