Why Maplewood Makes Sense: 

• We are right-sized for our neighborhood: Using the district’s own rubric, Maplewood is 94% full based on our current zoned, neighborhood population. 

• We are walkable for most of our community – including the 30% of economically disadvantaged kids in our community, roughly 125 kids, about the same number as at Campbell where we are proposed to move.

• Many other schools proposed for closure are full, but full mainly due to transfers and special programs like wall to wall dual language. Maplewood has some of those features but fundamentally is full as a neighborhood school. 

Why Maplewood Makes Sense:

• We have 408 students and the proposal is to move us to a school with a community of 190. 

• Data shows that test scores drop, at least for a couple of years, when you move kids to a new school. Particularly with the looming threat of TEA takeover, we should be moving the fewest number of kids to new schools. 

• Total combined attendance of Campbell and Maplewood is 597 according to TEA for the 2024-25 school year. For Campbell to accommodate the full current student bodies of the two schools, it would need portables. If the plan is not accommodating the full existing communities, then it is counting on attrition and excluding current transfers, which has not been acknowledged or discussed in the planning.

Why Maplewood Makes Sense:

• Maplewood is the only A-rated school on the closure plan. 

• Maplewood is demonstrating not only excellence but progress.

• We have achieved this A rating with a more diverse community than most other A rated schools in the district and a significant population experiencing economic hardship – we have done better to raise all our kids up to the highest levels of excellence than many communities that have more resources.

• While recognizing that there is much more to a school than a rating, parents have concerns about moving from an A-rated to a D-rated school from an academic perspective.

Why Maplewood Makes Sense:

• Vouchers are here, and can create a death spiral for public school systems. Cutting popular schools like Maplewood that center community and strong academics now is a mistake.

• Keeping kids enrolled is where AISD gets most of its money (not to mention its entire mission). When a business closes 10% of their locations in a city, they would assume some loss of customers going to other options. In AISD's scenario, parents will decide whether to continue or enroll their students at AISD or consider other options (private, charter, home school). If it's 5% loss (3,500 students) AISD will lose $28mil in funding, eclipsing the targeted $25.6mil savings of school closures.  (Supporting math: AISD Total Student Attendance (approx): 70,000. 5% loss - 3,500 @$8,000 = $28,000,000 annually. 7% loss - 5,000 @$8,000 = $40,000,000 annually)

Why Maplewood Makes Sense:

• The Maplewood site has more limited road capacity, a railroad easement and compatibility issues that make it less desirable for developers to build ground up, which lowers the resale value. For leasing a site of that size, the most likely users are private/charter schools who if leased at that location would cannibalize AISD students in the district costing the district even more money.

• Maplewood has significant value in its property features. The Outdoor infrastructure is worth over $1,000,000. Maplewood has new playgrounds worth $450,000, canopies worth $400,000, a new fence worth $150,000. This type of infrastructure is rare and the District has no money to invest in our campuses that lack outdoor features.

• The new secure vestibule and HVAC improvements at Maplewood are complete which cost $1.5 million.

• Generally, the district has not proved up the idea that closures save money. Campuses that were closed in 2019 have not resulted in significant revenues and the district is still paying for utilities, etc, at these sites.

Why Maplewood Makes Sense:

• It is not clear that consolidating Maplewood into Campbell serves the equity principles the district is aiming toward.

• Transportation problems for economically disadvantaged kids from Maplewood having to get to Campbell would affect a roughly equal number of actual kids as would be impacted in the reverse scenario (i.e. if Campbell kids had to get to Maplewood). From back of the envelope calculations, the number of economically disadvantaged kids at Maplewood is 122 (30% of a community of 408) and at Campbell is 133 (70% of a much smaller population of 190). If this problem is considered significant, it supports keeping Maplewood open.

• Equity is not about bringing up the test score average of a school by importing another school of kids – it should be about whether the kids can be better served by the district and see their scores and outcomes improve from their current baseline.

• Title I funding would be lost to Campbell, and while Maplewood families on average are higher resourced, a plan is needed to ensure that the supports needed for economically disadvantaged kids remain.

Why Maplewood Makes Sense:

• Extensive planning has gone into the northern I-35 railway crossing cap, which centers walkability and transit and involves the Cherrywood and Wilshire Woods Neighborhood Associations as well as City Council members like our own Zo Qadri. The school is central to those aims and closing it would run counter to the goals the city and neighborhoods are pursuing.

• Cherrywood/Wilshire Woods are already experiencing significant disruption from the I-35 project, with rapid change (childcare Escuelita del Alma moved out of neighborhood from frontage road, businesses like Nature’s Treasures, Cherrywood Coffeehouse impacted, etc.). Losing the centering neighborhood school now is a huge blow to a neighborhood already undergoing that much change. Moreover, transportation to Campbell from the north side of our community will be made more difficult by the I-35 construction.

• New housing is being planned near Maplewood right when the district is thinking of taking the school away. The Cherrywood Neighborhood Association anticipates that the horizon for new housing that would trigger an AISD impact assessment is probably a few years. Within 10 years they expect the Fiesta site to redevelop and include housing.

Why Maplewood Makes Sense:

• Maplewood is already fully utilized.

• Campbell could remain and maintain its small academy if part of the building was put to another joint use that was useful for the community and generate revenue. For instance, co-location with pre-k or other community need could make sense and generate dollars from leasing or direct services provided.