Frisco ISD officials are recommending the demolition of Staley Middle School, which is scheduled to close at the end of the 2025-26 school year but still costs the district roughly $300,000 a year just to keep running. The recommendation came out of a board sustainability workshop on Monday, where staff laid out three options for the school's future: renovating and repurposing it, selling it, or tearing it down.
According to Community Impact, district officials have not identified a need to reuse or repurpose the campus. Kim Smith, Frisco ISD's deputy superintendent of business and operations, told the board that demolition would probably be the best long-term option for the district. The board took no action on the recommendation at the workshop.
Smith said renovation expenses would only add to costs the district already faces from replacing Staley's aging underground plumbing system, work that was previously estimated at $7 million to $10 million and 18 to 30 months to complete. She also said the campus's proximity to other district facilities made selling it less attractive, since doing so would mean losing control over property surrounded by other Frisco ISD sites.
Why an Empty Building Still Costs So Much
Maintaining Staley isn't free. The district spends roughly $300,000 annually on utilities for the campus, and Smith noted that figure doesn't include the cost of repairing unexpected failures, like a burst pipe. Part of that expense comes down to basic building science: the air conditioning has to stay on around the clock.
“You have to keep the air conditioner on, otherwise you get mold,” Smith said, according to the same report. That ongoing upkeep is a central reason officials now view demolition as more practical than letting the building sit indefinitely while the district decides what, if anything, comes next.
A School District Shrinking by the Thousands
Staley's planned closure isn't an isolated decision. Frisco ISD leaders voted on Oct. 20, 2025, to retire the middle school at the end of the 2025-26 school year, pointing to districtwide enrollment decline alongside the plumbing costs. The closure will rezone Staley's students to Hunt, Trent and Griffin middle schools beginning in August 2026.
The numbers behind that decision are stark. A March 2025 presentation projected the district would have 980 fewer middle schoolers within three years, equivalent to an entire school's worth of students. By October 2025, district enrollment stood at 62,755, down about 2,800 students from the end of the prior school year, per Frisco ISD.
A Reversal From Last Spring's Close Vote
The path to closure wasn't straightforward. In April 2025, trustees rejected an earlier proposal to close Staley at the end of that school year, voting 4-3 against it and instead directing staff to gather more demographic information before revisiting the issue.
Money has shadowed Staley's future for years. Frisco ISD had proposed $102.33 million to rebuild the aging school as part of a $1.08 billion bond package in 2024, but voters rejected that bond entirely, leaving the district without funding to address the campus's underlying infrastructure problems.
What Has to Happen Before Any Wrecking Ball
Demolition isn't imminent just because staff recommended it. Before the district can even establish a potential timeline for tearing down the building, the board must first adopt a resolution formally declaring that the former Staley campus has no further educational use.
Smith indicated that step alone doesn't move things quickly. She said there is typically a lengthy interval between declaring a property has no educational use and actually moving forward with a demolition contract. The recommendation also fits into a broader effort: Frisco ISD is developing a real property master plan meant to guide long-term decisions about district facilities and land no longer needed for classroom use.
