Rarely are demographic breakdowns of students or communities a part of the discussions when leaders consider closing schools. Academic impacts are also often absent from the debate, one expert asserts.

Educators are trying to understand how these tools work and, perhaps most pressingly, how they can be misused.

The event comes more than a year after the May 2022 mass shooting that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, with building planners honoring the victims through its schematic designs, including a tree at its center.​

In the 2021-22 school year, more than 900 teachers left their jobs in El Paso’s three largest districts. That was the highest number ever, and Texas also set a statewide attrition rate that year.