La Joya ISD held their first community meeting to discuss a proposal to permanently close four campuses and repurpose a fifth one.

The meeting was held Tuesday evening at Ann Richards Middle School, one of the campuses that would close under the district’s School Actions Planning process.

Prior to the start of the meeting, district staff told Channel 5 News that media was not allowed, and asked our crew to leave the building. 

La Joya ISD Chief of Academics and School Leadership Derek Little said the decision to not allow media in the building was to avoid confusion among parents.

“While we wanna keep the whole community informed and engaged, we also want to respect that families have unique circumstances and questions,” Little said. “We're really ensuring that we can provide a space where we can address those specific families that may or not be the same answer at another school.”

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: New proposal would permanently close 4 La Joya ISD campuses

As previously reported, the district announced the potential permanent closure of the following campuses:

- Benavides Elementary
- Peña Elementary
- Leo Elementary
- Ann Richards Middle School.

A fifth campus, J.D. Salinas Middle School, will close as part of the proposal and be repurposed and open during the 2027–2028 school year as Choice Career Academy Middle School to create “new pathways in career and technical education,” a news release added.

The district said the proposal would address a loss of over 8,000 students over the last 10 years, and help them save up to $27.2 million.

The recommendations for the 2026-2027 school year will be discussed in a series of public meetings leading up to a final decision from the school board in January 2026.

The next meeting is set for Thursday, Dec. 11 at Benavides Elementary, located at 1882 El Pinto Road in Sullivan City. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and end at 7:30 p.m.

The district said more details on the proposal are available on their website.