What you need to know
Tierra Rosa Elementary will pull students from Santa Rita and Bar W elementaries once it opens in August in the Santa Rita Ranch subdivision.
With a capacity for 800 students, about 619 students will attend Tierra Rosa Elementary for the 2024-25 school year with more students attending each year, projections show. The new school will relieve Santa Rita Elementary as it is over capacity by around 200 students, Superintendent Steven Snell said at a community forum on Jan. 16.
District officials said new attendance zones are intended to stay in place until Elementary School No. 8 opens in 2026 in the Lariat neighborhood.
What they're saying
"We did our absolute best to minimize the number of families who were being moved or transitioned," said Todd Washburn, LHISD assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. "We know they love their schools and don't like to move from their schools, so we've tried to mitigate that as much as possible while balancing the zones."
The backstory
The district proposed two rezoning options in December and gathered community feedback through an online survey and community forums in January.
The first option, which was favored by the district for moving fewer families, showed Tierra Rosa pulling students from Santa Rita, Bar W and Rancho Sienna elementaries; and Morning Star, Santa Rita East and The Ridge at Cross Creek neighborhoods.
The district received more than 700 survey responses with 78% of respondents giving the first rezoning option a positive rating of 3-5, Washburn said. After reviewing community feedback, district officials changed the proposed attendance boundaries so The Ridge at Cross Creek neighborhood would stay zoned for Rancho Sienna Elementary, according to the district’s website.
As only 21 students would have been rezoned from Rancho Sienna, keeping those students put would not disrupt the district's enrollment balance, Washburn said.
