Durham Public Schools board members spent two hours debating a $474,405 contract with a Florida consulting firm before tabling the decision, leaving open the question of whether the district will eventually move forward with a study that could identify schools for closure or consolidation. The proposal, which would also take 10 months to complete, has drawn pushback from parents, teachers and advocacy groups who packed into the meeting to voice concerns.
The contract under discussion would hire MGT Impact Solutions, a consulting firm based in Florida, to evaluate enrollment and facility needs across the district, including potential school closures, according to WUNC News. The study would examine enrollment trends, building capacity, aging facilities, possible consolidation scenarios, financial impacts and community feedback, according to a report from soduwelikelocal.news. The board had already approved the request for proposals and study scope back in June, and since then four new members have been sworn in, the station's report notes.
Accounts of exactly how the board's Thursday, November 5, meeting ended diverge. Per the same account from WUNC, a motion from board member Wendell Tabb to approve the contract with added parameters and a phased approach ended in a deadlocked 3-3 vote, with board member Xavier Cason absent. The 9th Street Journal, however, reported that the board instead voted 4-2 to table discussion and request a revised version of the contract — one that would split the study into phases and add a termination clause. Either way, the board is expected to take the matter up again on Nov. 19.
Who Is MGT Impact Solutions?
MGT Impact Solutions is a Florida-based consulting firm that primarily serves clients in education and public services, the 9th Street Journal reports, and the company has conducted more than 100 similar studies for school districts nationwide, per WUNC. Its team includes former public school district administrators and a GIS expert, though no MGT representative attended the board's Thursday, November 5, meeting. The firm's CEO, Trey Traviesa, founded a charter school and served as a Republican state representative in Florida; WUNC also reports he is not on the team that would work directly with DPS, but he contributes to A Foundation for Florida's Future, a group that has helped shape Florida's private school tax credit program.
That background fueled some of the skepticism in the room. Mika Hunter Twietmeyer, president of the Durham Association of Educators, said the contract could be a step toward closing schools. Board members Gabby Rivero, Nadeen Bir and Natalie Bent Kitaif each expressed hesitation about the contract's cost, and Bir said the board had received emails from constituents — organized by coalitions including Public Schools Strong, the Durham Association of Educators and Durham for All — asking members to reconsider.
A District Grappling With Shrinking Enrollment
District officials have defended the study as necessary groundwork. Superintendent Anthony Lewis said administrators recommended MGT as the leading firm for this work and argued that closures could result in safer buildings and potential cost savings, according to WUNC. Devan Mitchell, DPS director of school planning, warned that restarting the bidding process could delay the timeline by up to six months and deter current bidders, after board members Rivero and Bent Kitaif proposed reopening the request for proposals — a push that failed to gain enough support. Board member Millicent Rogers separately warned that vendors could withdraw their bids altogether following the drawn-out discussion.
The urgency stems from a district confronting a shrinking student population. DPS projects enrollment will decline by up to 8,000 additional students by 2035, and Mitchell said a loss of 7,000 to 8,000 students could leave about half a million square feet of school buildings unused, per WUNC. The district already manages a mix of under-enrolled and overcrowded schools amid uneven population growth across the county, and it holds one of the state's highest ratios of charter school students to traditional public school students.
That ratio reflects a longer-running trend. DPS enrollment peaked at 33,651 students in 2014 and still has not recovered from losing more than 1,500 students during the pandemic in 2020, according to the 9th Street Journal. Ninth-grade enrollment alone fell by 292 students compared with the prior year, the steepest drop of any grade. Meanwhile, Durham County charter-school enrollment climbed from more than 3,500 students in 2012 to almost 8,300 in 2024, and Indy Week reports the number of Durham residents enrolled in charter schools jumped from 7,641 to 8,288 in just one year, part of a decline nearly every North Carolina district experienced. Statewide, charter enrollment rose 19 percent from 2019 to 2022, the fifth-highest growth rate in the nation, according to EdNC. More than 2,400 Durham students also received Opportunity Scholarships in 2025, up from around 800 in 2022, per the 9th Street Journal.
Aging Buildings and a Looming Bond
District officials say the study could inform a capital improvement plan ahead of a possible 2028 bond referendum, pointing to aging buildings and nearly $1 billion in maintenance repairs, the 9th Street Journal reports. A 2025 facilities condition assessment found DPS would need $965 million to replace failing infrastructure in existing buildings alone, not counting new construction, and the district's average school building age is 65 years. DPS officials and board members hope to pursue a local bond referendum in the 2028 election for a property tax increase to fund repairs and renovations, but district leaders say they need a long-term facilities plan in place first.
Paige Prather, a parent at Watts Elementary — a school mentioned in the district's draft capital improvement plan as a possible closure — said she had questions about the direction the district is choosing for Durham Public Schools. Board chair Joy Harrell Goff suggested adding a conflict-of-interest disclosure in case MGT holds contracts with North Carolina charter schools. Some board members also said any rightsizing plan should preserve the values behind Growing Together, the district's recent redistricting initiative, including equity, access to programming and socioeconomic diversity, according to soduwelikelocal.news.
A Cautionary Tale From Cumberland County
The skepticism in Durham echoes what happened after MGT completed a similar study elsewhere in the state. Last December, the firm recommended the closure or consolidation of 13 of Cumberland County's 85 schools, a recommendation that drew vocal opposition from local parents and educators, the 9th Street Journal reports. The board had previously approved issuing the request for proposals for Durham's own rightsizing study and directed that the final report include community engagement findings, according to a separate account from citizenportal.ai.
The MGT contract is not the district's only recent big-ticket agreement. In August, Durham Public Schools entered into a deal with Unlimited Instruction LLC for instructional services, with total payments capped at $1,530,040 at a rate of $65.95 per hour for up to 23,200 hours, according to district contract records. Whether the MGT study ultimately moves forward now rests on the revised terms expected to come before the board's seven members on Nov. 19.
