On Thursday night, Hays CISD held the first meeting of its committee to redraw attendance zone maps ahead of the opening of Johnson High School in 2019.
“Hopefully the trustee that appointed you told you that sometimes this gets rough,” HCISD board of trustees president Meredith Keller said as the meeting began.
The 35-member committee, led by Chief Communication Officer Tim Savoy, started by discussing two draft maps that were produced by the district administration.
“There is nothing set in stone, there is nothing decided,” Savoy said.
Among the considerations before the committee is whether or not to divide the six HCISD middle schools evenly, with two feeding into each high school, or whether to place more emphasis on equal distribution of students and other factors.
Draft map 2 divides middle schools evenly, but leaves the distribution of the number of students uneven, while draft map 1 provides more equal distribution of the number of students, but splits some middle schools.
HCISD also has Live Oak, an alternative high school of choice, but because it is not tied to geography it is not included in demographic projections nor is it included in the feeder pattern.
Other things the committee may consider is socioeconomic factors or different programming offered at different schools.
Savoy took an informal survey that showed that a significant number of committee members want to keep middle schools together, but a significant number are undecided.
The committee is can reconsider the middle school attendance zones, but is not charged with reconsidering elementary map.
Before sending a map to the board of trustees for final approval, the committee must hold two public hearings; one is on Oct. 16 and one is on Oct. 25. The district will also be collecting comments online.
The draft maps, maps of existing attendance zones, the committee’s meeting schedule, an explanation of the process and the form to submit comments electronically are all available on the HCISD website.
The committee next meets Oct. 1.
UPDATE 9/29/18: This post has been corrected to reflect the fact that Tim Savoy's formal title is HCISD chief communication officer, not public information officer, and that it is draft map 2 that splits middle schools evenly, not draft map 1.