July 19, 2021                         

For the past six years Grand Prairie ISD and Uplift Education have collaborated in a unique partnership that provided an Uplift Primary School program at Delmas Morton Elementary. The partnership also made it possible for middle school students to attend Uplift Grand Middle School after completing primary school. However, due to declining interest in the programming and a decrease in enrollment, we will not be able to sustain the partnership, and it will not be continued in the 2021-2022 school year.

Scholars enrolled at Uplift Delmas Morton will have the choice to continue at Grand Prairie's Delmas Morton Elementary, transfer to another GPISD school, or transfer to nearby Uplift Grand Preparatory.

Uplift and GPISD made this decision after careful review of the enrollment trends of both the Uplift and GPISD schools on the Delmas Morton campus and analysis of the demographics of the surrounding community near the schools.  Both the Uplift and GPISD Delmas Morton schools have seen declining enrollment over the past few years and with a decline in the number of families with primary school-aged children living near the schools, we saw this as a long-term structural issue that would be difficult to solve.  

Uplift and GPISD both believe deeply in school choice for our families.  Our shared district leadership at Uplift and GPISD could not be prouder of what our joint teams accomplished together.  As the first district-charter partnership school in North Texas, we were a successful model that has led to dozens of other partnerships around the State and the passage of Senate Bill 1882 which provided additional financial support for these types of partnerships.  Both primary schools were academically successful throughout our partnership and showed that through collaboration, all children can achieve at high levels.  When we extended our partnership to the Middle School, we were trailblazers again hosting district children in a charter network’s building.  While this specific collaboration with GPISD needed to come to an end, our joint doors are open to new ways we can work together over the years.