Fort Worth ISD votes to close last remaining 6th grade campus
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Fort Worth Independent School District has decided to close down another one of its campuses as enrollment numbers continue to decline.
On Tuesday, school board members unanimously voted to close the McLean Sixth Grade Center.
Students from the district’s last remaining school for only sixth graders will go to McLean Middle School in the future.
The district said the move will allow it to better distribute resources among campuses.
Some members of the community criticized the idea during public comment, arguing that it felt rushed or that keeping sixth graders separate from the older students helped ease peer pressure. Others spoke in support of the decision.
"There are many benefits to merging campuses but I would like to touch on one from my current perspective. For the last three years at McLean Sixth, there has been no Spanish teacher. This has caused a break in the dual-language track, which students enter in kindergarten and proceed through into high school," said Shelby Ryan, a Fort ISD parent and former teacher. "McLean if they were to merge could expand course offerings and retain staff. This applies to many other areas as well, not just the bilingual track. It could apply to electives. It could apply to advanced courses, fine arts, and extracurricular activities."
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Last year, Fort Worth ISD voted to close the Wedgewood and Forest Oak sixth-grade campuses, combining them with the middle school campuses.
Simply put, the district said it was not feasible to operate an entire campus only for one grade, considering the district’s current and projected enrollment.