The Fort Bend Independent School District Board of Trustees seems to have come to a final consensus on proposed school zoning, and will now prepare for two public hearings on the issue.
The Fort Bend Independent School district Board of Trustees has agreed on proposed zoning changes, and will now schedule to public hearings on the issue.
At the beginning of Monday nights zoning workshop, the sixth workshop in a three-month period, FBISD Superintendent Timothy Jenney gave the board staff’s final recommendations.
To view the proposal, click here.
Jenney told the board that staff does not recommend closing any buildings until next year. Possibly on the chopping block were Colony Bend Elementary, McAuliffe Middle School and either Marshall High School or Willowridge High School.
All four of those campuses have low enrollment.
Jenney said staff recommends taking the next year to study the possibility of making Colony Bend a charter school, making Marshall High School into a “academy school,” making Willowridge High School a 10th, 11th, 12th grade campus absorbing the students from Marshall, making McAuliffe Middle School and Missouri City Middle School 7th, 8th and 9th grade campuses and adding an addition to Cornerstone Elementary no later than 2013.
“I think it is a wonderful thing to allow ourselves a year,” said FBISD Board President Sonal Bhuchar.
All zoning changes would include grandfathering in current 7th, 9th and 10th graders to stay at their home school.
Elementary School Zoning Changes
Under the proposed plan, students from the Department of Corrections neighborhoods and the future Cloisters development who be rezoned from Oakland Elementary to Pecan Grove Elementary. The change affects about 15 students.
Orchard Lakes Estates would move from Cornerstone Elementary to Oyster Creek Elementary. Those neighborhoods hold 121 elementary school students.
Chelsea Harbor and the Landmark at Sugar Land apartments will be rezoned from Cornerstone to Lakeview Elementary.
Should that zoning occur, Chelsea Harbor will have come full circle since being rezoned three times in five years.
Chelsea Harbor, a Sugar Land community of 351 homes off of 1464, bound by Mornington Drive, Ayers Rock Road, Auckland Drive and Marina Bay Lane, was originally zoned to Lakeview Elementary School.
Students were rezoned to Oakland Elementary when it opened in 2006, then rezoned again to Cornerstone Elementary when it opened in 2007.
The president of the Chelsea Harbor Homeowners Association spoke at an earlier zoning meeting, asking the board to give his neighborhood a permanent “home” regarding elementary campuses.
“By fortune of good iteming, my children have been to every one of those schools,” said William Lee. “I feel like they are being used a filler children for schools that need the numbers. Can he (FBISD’s Chief Auxiliary Services Officer Ben Copeland) promise that Chelsea harbor will finally find a home? My children have already suffered the past rezoning and I am hoping here tonight my voice will not fall on deaf ears.”
Brookside, Hall Lake and Venetian Estates would move from Lakeview to Highlands Elementary.
The changes would decrease overcrowded Cornerstone’s population by 319 students, and could hold the district until a new elementary school is built near Oakland, “when we can find the dollars to operate it,” according to Chief Auxiliary Officer Ben Copeland.
The proposal includes building an addition to Cornerstone no later than 2013.
North Middle School Zoning
The proposed changes to middle schools would send Kingsbridge Apartments, Dover, Keegans Wood and Kingsbridge Park from Sugar Land Middle School to Hodges Bend Middle School. Those areas include about 107 elementary middle school students.
Hall Lake, Lake Point, Sugar Lakes, Alkire Lake, Venetian Estates and Brookside would be rezoned from Sugar Land to Dulles Middle School, representing a change for about 55 students.
Department of Corrections neighborhoods, the future Cloister development, Chelsea Harbor and the Landmark at Sugar Land apartments would move from Garcia Middle School to the new Middle School #14, representing a change for about 92 students.
Pecan Grove Plantation, Waterview, Fieldstone, Long Meadow Farms, Aliana, Waterside Village, Waterside Estates and South Grand Apartments would move from Crockett to Middle School #14, representing the largest population shift of about 606 students. .
South Middle School Zoning
To relieve overcrowding at Baines Middle School, staff proposes moving Stonebrook, Oakwick Forest, Village of Anderson Springs and Gateway Apartments from Baines Middle School to First Colony. The neighborhoods represent about 214 middle school students.
Anderson Springs parents showed up at Mondays night’s meeting protesting the change, saying it was not in the best interest of their children. One parent got very emotional addressing the board during the regular meeting, telling trustees that her son was rezoned in elementary school away from his three best friends, and had been looking forward to reuniting with them at Baines.
Copeland told trustees that the change could “sustain” Baines until the district has enough money to operate Middle School #15.
During the zoning process, the board looked at several options for Baines, including 8th graders going to Ridgepoint High School, 6th graders going to Heritage Rose Elementary School, or the possibility of adding 10 temporary buildings in the next three years.
Copeland said Anderson Springs was the “natural selection” for rezoning.
High School Zoning
Under the proposed high school zoning plan, Kingsbridge Apartments, Dover, Keegans Wood and Kingsbridge Park would move from Kempner High School to Bush High School. Those neighborhoods represent about 171 high school students.
Aliana, which includes about 15 high school students, would move from Austin High School to Travis High School. Avalon at Telfair, which currently has no students, would move from Kempner High School to Clements High School.
Hall Lake, Lake Point, Sugar Lakes, Alkire Lake, Venetian Estates and Brookside, representing about 72 high school students, would move from Kempner to Dulles High School.
The largest population shift would come from Lake Colony, Heritage Colony and a portion of Riverstone, which would move about 316 students from Clements to Elkins High School.
Parents of children currently at Clements who would be rezoned showed up at Monday nights meeting protesting the change, some claiming it would decrease the property values of their homes.
Quail Green South, representing about 33 students, would move from Marshall High School to Elkins.
Board Member Laurie Caldwell expressed concern about rezoning Lake Colony and Heritage Colony, neighborhoods she said have been victims of being “ping-ponged” by multiple rezoning.
“I’ve been a part of the board that ping-ponged them, and I feel really bad about that,” said Caldwell. “I was just wondering if there was any way we could keep them out of this move.”
“Is it (the move) long-term for the people Mrs. Caldwell is worried about?” asked Trustee Jim Rice.
“I believe it’s the best option,” said Copeland.
Copeland said the neighborhoods represent 213 students, and not making the change would essentially put the plan back to Option 1.
Bhuchar said the zoning made the high schools “uniformly overcrowded.”
“The goal of this whole initiative was to balance enrollment,” said Copeland.
“I think it looks like a balanced plan,” said Rice.
“So, can we declare that phase one has been completed?” asked Jenney. “We will set up the hearings.”
Dates have not yet been set for the two public hearings on the proposal.
I agree with the opinion above that Board Trustees lack the will and courage to make hard decisions. What really needs to be done based on available space is for FBISD to move Quail Valley to available space at WillowRidge or Marshall. But, the Trustees lack the guts to make such a decision.
I agree with you IHDH & TaxednAbused to prohibit building a new high school, limiting home developer cost!
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Jenney asked the question,”So, can we declare that phase 1 has been completed?” Please correct me if I am wrong, but did anyone answer him? The next words I heard were, “We will set up the hearings.” Did the board members nod in silence or use sign language to respond to his question? Where was the concensus? A better question may be, when did the concensus occur?
And to Viewpoint: your suggestion has merit and may be worth investigating further, but who’s listening?
Is uniforly overcrowded schools what we are aspiring for? FBISD is taking a very short term view on rezoning. By moving High School students from Riverstone. Heritage Colony and Lake Colony (316 students), they are already overcrowding Elkins in the first year with a high probability that Elkins would be hugely overcrowded if they decide to consolidate Willowridge and Marshall High School and move the overflow back to Elkins. Several of the residents proposed that the Global Language Academy from Clements ought to be moved out to help with the overcrowding, and the proposed students being rezoned from Riverstone, Heritage Colony and Lake Colony could stay in Clements, but this proposal fell on deaf ears since all the FBISD Board seemed to be interested in “Uniform overcrowding”. Is this why we elect School Board members?
Don’t you find it ironic that there was so much urgency to build another high school a couple of years ago? Of course if they close a school….we will be told that it will be cheaper to “rebuild” the school instead of reopening it should the population start rising again. After all, the taxpayers are a bottomless financial resource………[/snark]
Why not bus students to other schools instead of building new ones? A lot less expensive.
All high school students in Pct.2, plus Pct.4062 should be transfer an divided to attend Willowridge HS and Marshall HS. Except Pct2108 to attend RidgePoint HS. Thence HS student south on Hwy 6 to attend Elkins, Ridgepoint and Clements HS.