Two new draft school attendance zone maps—Plan 3 and Plan 4—were released by the Hays CISD high school rezoning committee this week.

The committee is charged with drawing attendance zones in advance of the August 2019 opening of Johnson High School, the district’s third comprehensive school for grades 9-12. Members of the committee can also make changes to middle school attendance zones, but they are not allowed to consider elementary attendance zones.

The principle difference between Plan 3 and Plan 4 is how each relates to the middle schools. Although Plan 3 includes changes to the middle school attendance zones, it does not split them, meaning that each high school would receive all the students from two of the district’s six middle schools. Plan 4 was rendered without consideration to the middle school attendance zones, so that in most cases, a portion of students from one middle school would attend one high school, and a portion would attend a different high school.

At the same meeting, the committee voted to retire one of the original draft maps—Plan 1—leaving a total of three maps for the community to consider.

The first public hearing on the draft maps will be held Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. at the Hays CISD Performing Arts Center in Kyle.

All the draft maps, along with projected enrollments in each of the high schools and other supporting documents, are posted on the Hays CISD website's rezoning page, which also includes a button to provide feedback.