PLANO, Texas — It was announced Tuesday that Davis Elementary in Plano is one of the four schools that could close for the 2025 school year.
The schools were identified by a long range facility planning committee tasked with addressing declining enrollment and widening disparities across campuses at Plano ISD. However, there are few schools like Davis Elementary. It is also the Regional Day School Program for the Deaf (RDSPD).
"Davis Elementary is a very important school to our students," said Dylan Rafaty, who is a long-time disability advocate and founder of the North Texas Disability Chamber.
Davis is known regionally for its day school program for the deaf and hard of hearing. The campus serves 150 students. The member districts that feed into Davis Elementary are Allen ISD, Blue Ridge ISD, Celina ISD, Community ISD, Coppell ISD, Farmersville ISD, Frisco ISD, Lovejoy ISD, McKinney ISD, Plano ISD, Princeton ISD, Prosper ISD, Richardson ISD and Wylie ISD.
"There is a culture here that cannot be easily replicated. The hearing kids and the deaf kids are one, they're friends," said Erica Salcido who has a third-grader in the program.
News spread quickly after it was announced at a Plano school district meeting that Davis made the list of four schools that could close. Rafaty, who is a disability advocate and also deaf, has heard from people in the community regarding the district's pending decision. He also went to Plano schools growing up and still lives in Collin County.
"'What is going to happen to my teachers? What is this new change gonna look like?'" Rafaty recalls the questions posed to him by those in the community.
PISD has made it very clear, and again during Tuesday's meeting, that the regional program is not going away. If Davis does end up closing, the day school program for the deaf and hard of hearing will be moved 1.1 miles away to Harrington Elementary.
The Salcidos, who commute from McKinney, are not concerned about the drive. Although, a disability advocate tells WFAA that some families have put down roots in the Plano community to be better accessible to Davis Elementary.
"It would be a huge shift. It would be a huge learning curve, and that learning curve means deaf kids are gonna suffer," said Salcido.
Plano is not the only district facing school closures and dropping enrollment. The fast-changing dynamics of North Texas has many school districts in the cross-hairs of tough decisions.
"It may be just the correct answer to a painful reality," said economist Cullum Clark, who is an adjunct professor with SMU and director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative.
Clark says there are multiple factors at play when it comes to declining enrollment. He points to sharp drops in birth rates and aging communities.
"Plano and Richardson, the housing stock is older," Clark said. "The cities are more fully built out so the population already there ages in place."
Meanwhile, faster-growing cities north of Plano, like Frisco and Prosper, are attracting younger families with school-age children.
Dylan is optimistic about the potential for changes.
"Change is actually good for people like myself and my peers because as we adapt to change, we learn to grow," Rafaty said.
Parents have organized a petition to raise awareness and stop the school from closing.
The district encourages all parents to educate themselves on the committee's findings and go to this webpage to submit questions or concerns.