The San Marcos CISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved new attendance zones for the district’s six elementary schools and two middle schools on March 30.
“We have come up with an excellent plan that takes into consideration the students’ safety and our busing,” Superintendent Mark Eads said.
Under the new plan, the following numbers of students will be transferred between elementary schools:
- Bowie to De Zavala – 32
- Bowie to Hernandez – 79
- Bowie to Mendez – 96
- Crocket to Hernandez – 85
- Hernandez to Crockett – 45
- Hernandez to Mendez – 16
- Mendez to De Zavala – 54
- Mendez to Travis – 3
- Travis to Crockett – 56
- Travis to De Zavala – 38
The district held two public workshops to gather feedback on the plan in March. Parents voiced concerns about switching their children to new schools where they do not know other children and difficulties with transporting their students to school.
Lillian Garcia, a mother of a first and fourth grader, said at the March 26 public meeting that she is familiar with the teachers and staff at her children’s school, and she is not interested in changing schools.
“I’m not sending my child to Crockett [Elementary School],” Garcia said. “I want Travis [Elementary School]. I should be able to choose where I send my daughters. I don’t want to send them to Crockett, and I don’t want them to go to Miller [Middle School]. I want them to go to Goodnight [Middle School].”
Assistant Superintendent Karen Griffith said the primary reason behind the new boundaries is to address potential overcrowding at some of the district’s schools, including Travis and Bowie elementary schools.
“We have capacity at these schools and we have to set boundaries to determine where the children in the neighborhood are going,” Griffith said. “Right now we are overflowing at some of these campuses.”
The district allows parents to file transfer requests that will allow fourth graders entering fifth grade and seventh graders entering eighth grade to be “grandfathered” in and remain at their current school for one final year. Griffith said the district will make every effort to accommodate those requests, but because of capacity issues, not every request can be guaranteed approval. As long as campuses are not at capacity, the requests will be granted, she said. Parents whose children are grandfathered in will be responsible for transporting their children to school.
Students in other grades will also be allowed to fill out the transfer requests, but preference will be given to fourth graders entering fifth grade and seventh graders entering eighth grade, Griffith said.
