LAKE WORTH — In an unexpected turn of events, the Lake Worth ISD board of trustees has decided to close Effie Morris Early Learning Academy and the Tadpole Learning Center.
On Feb. 17, at a regular school board meeting, due to the LWISD’s tightening financial situation, the board of trustees voted to close Effie Morris along with the daycare program, the Tadpole Learning Center.
LWISD Chief Financial Officer Trent Dowd showed to the board and the public a presentation showing the harsh reality of where the school district is financially. Exploring every financial route, Dowd explained how this is the only way to move forward with the little funding the district gets from the state.
“We would not be recommending this if we did not feel like this was the only way forward in order to get our district back to a fiscally healthy position,” Dowd said. “We’re hearing coming out of this legislative session is that there’s little promise for a significant increase in public education funding that would allow us to increase that basic allotment but also would allow us to increase our general budgets.”
The basic allotment is the minimum amount of funding per student that the state provides to each school district, which has not been raised for LWISD since 2019. Dowd also informed the board that LWISD will not receive any significant funding from the Tarrant Appraisal District.
“The concern on top of that, we have what’s going on in our Tarrant Appraisal District and that’s more unique to Tarrant County school districts,” Dowd said. “ … we’re also very concerned about our local funding that could be affected by that new reappraisal plan.”
Because of these financial hurdles, Dowd noted the process of making reductions in the district started back in the fall of 2023 in hopes of getting financial assistance from the state. A lot of the funding depends on enrollment and attendance. The district made cuts and hoped the state would raise the basic allotment, but to no avail.
“For the past three years, we’ve had to dip into our fund budget,” Dowd said. “This most recent year we considerably dipped into our fund budget. If we have another year like we did this year, I am very concerned for our fund budget and we’ll get to the point where we’ll have a hard time meeting day-to-day expenditure requirements.”
Dowd said the district estimates its deficit to be $3.5 million for the 2025-2026 school year. With enrollment and attendance being low, the district is forced to start making big budget cuts.
Closing Effie Morris will save the district $380,000, and a little bit less than that number in terms of the Tadpole Learning Center. Despite these financial reasons, many teachers and parents made public comments to the board opposing the recommendation of closure.
Ultimately, the board voted 4-2 with Cindy Burt and Tammy Thomas voting against the closing of Effie Morris and the Tadpole Learning Center. Thomas read a statement she prepared before the vote stating why she opposes the recommendation. Her statement was met with a round of applause by parents and teachers who attended the board meeting.
“Because of the unique environment created at Effie Morris Early Learning Academy it made the teacher allotment possible for many teachers here,” Thomas said. “The return of our investment into these students has already been proven and to dissolve this campus would be catastrophic.”
Parents raise concerns to the board about the closure of Effie Morris Early Learning Academy and the Tadpole Learning Center. JOLEE SKINNER | TRI-COUNTY REPORTER
