A Richardson ISD board of trustees meeting, set to take place Thursday night, has several important items on the agenda, including the district’s annual demographic update.
Set to begin at 6 p.m. at the RISD Administration Building, the board meeting will provide neighbors with updates on the past bonds, the district’s annual budget and projected enrollment trends.
The district demography report, presented to the board at the beginning of each calendar year, is compiled by Davis Demographics using statistics provided by the district, which are verified with external data sources.
Last year’s demographic data report projected a continued negative trend in enrollment, albeit less dire than some projections immediately following the COVID-19 Pandemic. According to the 2023-24 demography report, Davis projected that from the 2023 pk-12 enrollment of 37,067, that the district would see a decline of almost 6,000 students over 10 years, with an estimated 2033 pk-12 enrollment of 31,357.
However, district officials at last year’s Jan. 18 meeting — when the report was presented to the board — stressed the ever-changing nature of demographic projections.
“You see the red more as you get out to the 10 year, so what we’re asking is don’t focus on the tenth year because it’s going to look very different,” said Assistant Superintendent of District Operations Sandra Hayes. “If you go back and don’t focus on the tenth year because it’s going to look very different. If you go back and look at all of our reports, the tenth year [projections] never matches what it becomes after the tenth year.”
Despite emphasizing the fluidity of the projections, officials like Hayes and District Superintendent Tabitha Branum admitted that the data evidenced a “declining population” in a district where “most of our land is built out,” as Branum stated in the meeting. Additional factors cited by the district include a lack of affordable housing and an aging population.
The demography report is a critical first step in the district’s budgeting process, which is largely planned around the state’s per-student basic allotment, the district’s main source of funding. The state legislature has not increased basic allotment of $6,160 per student since 2019. Increasing the allotment is listed as one of the district’s legislative priorities for the 89th session of the Texas State Legislature.
The meeting will also feature updates on the $417 million 2024-25 annual budget approved in June of this year, as well as the 2016 and 2021 Bonds. The 2021 Bond, totaling close to $750 million, paved the way for the construction of the new Lake Highlands Middle School Building and the renovation/expansion of Forest Meadow Junior High, now Forest Meadow Middle School.
