The Pflugerville ISD board of trustees voted Feb. 20 to amend the district’s boundaries, a move that will impact hundreds of students across several elementary and middle schools.
The district’s two easternmost campuses, Mott Elementary School and Cele Middle School, are projected to gain the most relief from overcrowding due to the vote, according to district documents.
Mott Elementary, in particular, had its projected 2020-21 enrollment drop by 400 students with the new boundary changes, said John O’Hare, area executive director for PfISD, on Feb. 20.
“If we don’t make any adjustments, [Mott Elementary] will open in 2020-21 with 1,331 students. That will put the school at approximately 55% over capacity,” O’Hare said.
Cele Middle’s projected student body population dropped by approximately 250 students, district plans show.
Meanwhile, neighboring campuses will see their student numbers increase. Rowe Lane Elementary, Riojas Elementary, Pflugerville Elementary and Brookhollow Elementary are all likely to outpace their former projected student enrollment numbers, according to PfISD documents.
As a result, five temporary, portable classroom buildings will be added to the Riojas Elementary campus, and three portable classroom buildings will be added to the Rowe Lane Elementary campus.
District officials said portable classroom buildings may be needed next year at Kelly Lane Middle School as a result of the boundary changes.
While that campus is expected to see its projected enrollment increase by 10 students, Kelly Lane Middle will gain students from the Carmel, Sorento and Vine Creek subdivisions, beginning March 1.
Those three neighborhoods have delivered a combined 1,061 units, according to city documents, with plans to ultimately build out an additional combined 2,738 housing units, according to the city of Pflugerville’s residential development map.
Future plans
O’Hare and PfISD Superintendent Doug Killian told trustees that the district will begin planning the boundary changes for the 2021-22 school year as early as April. The pace on those plans, Killian said, will provide the community extra time to provide input on enrollment zone changes.
PfISD’s two newest campuses—an elementary school and a middle school on a shared site off Weiss Lane—are under construction. District officials expect both schools to be move-in ready by summer 2021.
When those schools open their doors to students, Killian stated he expects overcrowding at PfISD’s other schools east of SH 130 to get temporary relief.
As a result of the boundary changes enacted Feb. 20, several campuses will not be up for rezoning consideration in the future, according to district documents.
Because Riojas Elementary will be receiving Mott Elementary’s dual-language program students, PfISD documents show the district will work to keep continuity of that program at that campus.
“We will give careful consideration to the Riojas campus when we draw up the boundaries for Elementary [School] 23 in order to keep the campus within capacity and to continue to support the dual-language program and ensure stability in [that] location over the upcoming years,” O’Hare’s presentation stated Feb. 20.
