Little Rock school board, administrators continue discussions about elementary school closures

Members of the Little Rock School District board continue meeting with community members, collecting feedback and preparing to vote on LRSD Forward, the administration’s plan to close three elementary schools and reduce annual operating costs by an estimated $4.7 million to $5.3 million. 

Board members have been weighing the merits and drawbacks of seven closure and consolidation options. Public input raised concerns about students facing another school transition, families potentially leaving LRSD, the effects of closures in the Markham and Reservoir areas and the loss of momentum at Mabelvale Elementary. 

The need for LRSD Forward is clear: the district has lost students and the revenue that follows them, while continuing to operate more school buildings than it needs. Approximately 25% of the district’s building space remains unused, making it increasingly difficult to sustain operating costs with declining enrollment.

The administration’s preferred plan would close Western Hills, Mabelvale and McDermott elementary schools and redistribute their students among nearby schools. The district estimates that the three closures together would save $4.7 million to $5.3 million annually. 

LRSD Forward’s overall FY28 savings target is $5 million to $6 million, so the proposed closures could meet the minimum target at the high end of the estimates. Additional transportation savings are possible through reduced bus routes, but those figures will not be available until the new attendance zones and the 2027-28 student-assignment process are completed. 

At Thursday’s meeting, much of the board’s discussion focused on the difficult task of determining where students from Western Hills and McDermott would go if those schools close. Members have to balance enrollment across receiving schools, avoid overcrowding, make better use of buildings with substantial unused capacity and determine how to handle students who attend schools outside their assigned attendance zones. 

For Western Hills, the administration proposed sending students who live in the school’s attendance zone to Bale Elementary and moving the school’s 35-student autism program to Williams Magnet. Students living in the Western Hills zone would also have the option of attending Williams through its magnet program. Western Hills currently enrolls 182 students in a building designed for 362. 

McDermott presented a more complicated challenge, with two proposed attendance-zone configurations. Both would send the southern portion of McDermott’s zone, south of Interstate 630 and including Brownwood Terrace, to Bale. The proposals differed in how the remaining area would be divided among Terry and other receiving schools. One option would send the remainder to Terry, while the other would assign the northern portion around Colony West to Jefferson, with Terry receiving the rest. The original proposal also included a small shadow zone of 57 students in the eastern portion of McDermott’s current attendance area who could attend Williams. Fulbright’s boundaries would remain unchanged under either configuration because it is already over 85% capacity. 

The original configurations raised concerns about placing too many students at Terry and another receiving school while leaving substantial unused capacity at Williams. After considering the alternatives, board members decided to expand the proposed Williams shadow zone to include approximately 125 students. This would allow more students from McDermott’s former attendance area to attend Williams, easing enrollment pressure on the other receiving schools. The goal is to bring Terry and the other receiving schools to approximately 85% to 93% of building capacity while making greater use of the space available at Williams. 

Williams currently enrolls 288 students in a building designed for 589. Moving Western Hills’ 35 autism-program students there would increase the program’s enrollment to 46. The district’s earlier scenarios projected at least 209 open seats at Williams, although the final number will depend on the revised boundaries and student assignments. Expanding the shadow zone would bring Williams closer to capacity and give the district more flexibility in placing students from the closing schools. 

The board also examined the proposed division of Mabelvale’s attendance zone among Otter Creek, Chicot and Watson. The district cited declining enrollment and relatively high per-pupil costs in its rationale for closing the school. Mabelvale’s per-pupil cost is $12,943, compared with $10,210 at elementary schools with current average enrollments above 409 students. The district also noted that Mabelvale’s enrollment has declined year over year despite improvements in student outcomes and letter grades. 

Members questioned the proposed boundary changes involving Watson, Mabelvale, Chicot and Otter Creek. They requested clearer counts of students who actually live in the affected areas rather than relying solely on current school assignments. They also considered whether small adjustments near Watson could keep students together without splitting residential blocks. Administration said the Mabelvale family survey had been conducted and that the proposed changes were not expected to put receiving schools at risk of exceeding capacity. 

The administration described their preferred plan as a short-term response to the district’s immediate financial needs while the Resource Optimization and Enrollment Task Force continues its broader review of enrollment and facilities. The task force is not expected to make recommendations until spring 2027, with implementation no earlier than FY29. LRSD Forward is intended to reduce costs now rather than wait for that longer-term process. 

Before the board’s next meeting on the 15th, administration will return with revised boundary options and updated enrollment and capacity estimates, particularly for Williams and Terry. Members also need clearer counts of students living in the affected attendance zones, answers about transportation and continued family support services, and cost information for the academic programs under consideration. 

The board is expected to vote on the final plan on October 15.