District approves moving fifth-grade students, new rezoning plan

Following months of research, studies and input, the Hutto ISD board of trustees voted March 6 to return fifth-graders to elementary schools.

Fifth-grade students were shifted to the district's two middle schools in 2011 after the board voted to close Veterans' Hill Elementary School that year because of state funding cuts.

However, a Jan. 16 board decision to reopen VHES for the 2014–15 school year provided the district with additional space for students and prompted the board to look at bringing the grade back to elementary schools.

Hutto ISD Superintendent Doug Killian said capacity and financial issues were considered as well as parent opinions.

"There was an implied promise that we would eventually move [the fifth-graders] back," Killian said.

Middle school concerns

The district solicited opinions from parents, staff, local business owners and residents through an online survey. Out of 366 respondents, nearly 80 percent said they would prefer fifth grade to be located at the elementary school level.

Alex McCoy's son is a fourth-grader at Nadine Johnson Elementary School. Although McCoy did not have specific concerns, she was relieved by the decision.

"My child is well-adjusted, and I have no doubt he would have been all right at the middle school. But [fifth-graders] are still so little," she said.

Anonymous responses accompanying the survey included comments about how fifth-grade students fit socially into middle schools. One parent said fifth-grade students interacting with older students introduced them to inappropriate language and behavior. The district experienced a higher level of discipline referrals after integrating fifth-graders into its middle schools.

"When you get into middle school, you start pulling away from the ... mentality of teaching kids [how] to handle themselves to expecting them to have some individual management," Killian said.

Parents also expressed concerns over a decline in their children's academic performance. One parent said her daughter went from being a straight-A student to struggling with the additional responsibilities put on her by middle school teachers.

Hutto ISD reported standardized testing grades were down the year fifth grade was moved to middle schools. District officials, however, believe the test results provide inconclusive evidence on the move's academic impact, as it was the first year students started taking the more difficult State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR tests. However, the district agreed the move had some adverse effects on its students in special programs.

"I don't think it afforded them the attention they needed at that age and that grade level," HISD Public Information Officer Emily Parks said.

Moving fifth-graders back to the elementary level should help those issues by providing more attention and lower student-teacher ratios, Killian said.

Concerns with the move

Shifting fifth-graders back to elementary schools will not be an entirely seamless process, however, as administrators are still having to address diminishing space as enrollment grows.

All of the district's elementary schools, including VHES, will have to utilize portable buildings during the 2014–15 school year to accommodate an estimated 2,707 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade, according to the district's demographer.

"My big concern is little kids being located [in portables], and if they don't have restrooms, having to come in and out of the building," Killian said. "That would be a safety concern I would have."

Portables also run counter to the district's vision for its elementary campuses.

"We don't want to have a reliance on them or have them be a permanent fixture," Parks said. "They are portable buildings, and that's not what we see for Hutto ISD."

Future elementary growth

With the fifth-grade move decided, the district will continue monitoring enrollment growth and prepare for the possibility of building its sixth elementary campus, to be named Norman Elementary School.

Even with the opening of VHES, the shifting of fifth grade will mean all of the district's current elementary schools will be at more than 77 percent of total capacity. Nadine Johnson Elementary School is particularly feeling the crunch, with an estimated 2014–15 enrollment of 719 students in a school built to host a maximum of 700.

"The area around Nadine Johnson is built out—there are no more lots in Legends of Hutto or other developments that would feed into the school—but that is the campus that's growing the fastest," Parks said.

An HISD analysis predicts the district will need to open NES by the 2017–18 school year to meet capacity demands. Land has already been purchased for the new school near the Riverwalk subdivision on FM 685. The housing development is currently contributing to the overcrowding at NJES.

Before the school can be built, however, the district's annual tax revenue needs to increase by $445 million to facilitate construction costs. The additional money will have to come from new development throughout the city as the district's tax rate is already at its maximum amount.

"In 2014 we're projecting gross property values to be at $100 million," said Ed Ramos, HISD assistant superintendent of finance and operations. "We've conservatively estimated that values will grow at $100 million [per year] over the next four years."

The district also predicts enrollment will create a need for a seventh elementary school in school year 2020–21 and an eighth in 2023–24.

Rezoning

The district's board of trustees also approved a new elementary school zoning plan at its March 6 meeting.

The board of trustees chose a plan that zones students in the Emory Farms, Green Haven, the Heights at Deerfield and future Siena subdivisions into VHES. The shift will help alleviate student populations at NJES and Cottonwood Creek Elementary School.

"The [zoning] also maintains a lot of our walk-to-school possibilities," Killian said.

HISD staffers are hoping the district can keep the plan for three to four years before needing to develop a new one to shift student growth.

Some of the advantages of the plan included keeping all students from the Huttoparke subdivision in the same school as well as providing easier routes for students in Star Ranch to reach school.

"The way [the zoning] shifted seemed more natural, so kids don't have to drive by one elementary to get to another," Killian said.