San Marcos CISD board of trustees unanimously approved on Jan. 22 a new attendance zone map for the district’s elementary students, which was drafted to include Rodriguez Elementary School, a new facility set to open fall 2019. The board considered two different draft maps, one of which was formulated by district staff before receiving community input, and the second of which was slightly adjusted to accommodate requests from parents. Community meetings were hosted at every elementary school in the district in October and November to give parents an opportunity to learn more about the rezoning and give the district feedback about its initial draft. Ultimately, the board approved the second draft map. “I think [parents] knew it was an exciting time to open up a new elementary school, but with anything new comes some hesitation,” said San Marcos CISD Executive Director of Communications Andrew Fernandez. “People love tradition; they love to go with what they’ve experienced. So like I said, anytime something new opens up there is that transition of change. I think you could sense that from each meeting.” According to data provided by the district, the attendance zone map that was adopted will keep every elementary school’s population below capacity.
The new zones won’t make any significant changes to the distribution of economically disadvantaged students amongst the schools, with the exception of Crockett Elementary, which will see an estimated nine-student decrease but an overall 10 percent increase in economically disadvantaged students, bringing the school’s economically disadvantaged student population to 64 percent. During its first year, Rodriguez Elementary is projected to serve 340 students, while the school’s capacity is 660 students. However, officials project that the student population will quickly increase at as more people move to the Trace subdivision. Rodriguez Elementary’s overall population will be made up of 75 percent economically disadvantaged students, according to district data.
“[Parents] had a lot of questions about Rodriguez itself—the school, the environment, things that are going to be different from other campuses in San Marcos CISD,” Fernandez said. “So we let them know that we try to be as consistent as possible at all of our campuses. Yes, they have their own uniqueness to them, but we want to provide the same quality service to all of our campuses.”