The Hays CISD board of trustees is preparing to create an attendance zone for Ramage Elementary School, the district's newest elementary school slated to open for the 2025-26 school year.

The board discussed future attendance zone plans during its regular meeting Sept. 16.

The overview

Per agenda documents, the board of trustees establishes attendance zones. Adjustments to these zones may be necessary in order to balance student populations.

Agenda documents state HCISD administration will present map recommendations in three parts, which can be considered and adopted independently or together:

• Part A: map changes necessary only for the creation of an attendance zone for Ramage Elementary
• Part B: changes recommended to areas in development where no students currently live
• Part C: changes to existing school maps with students residing in the areas to balance student populations

Administration is aiming to have final map decisions completed by the end of the fall semester to "allow parents and students plenty of time to prepare prior to the start of the 2025-26 school year."

"One of the growing pains of being a fast-growth district is we have to come along and say, 'Wait a minute, we're going to have to move you to another school now because we're putting this in,'" Chief Communication Officer Tim Savoy said. "It can be disruptive, and I don't want anyone to unnecessarily worry about a zone change. ... As soon as we know you're out, it's not being considered, we'll just work it down, and then we'll have an audience of people that would be affected and that will kind of clear the room so that their voices can be heard louder."



Some context

Lamont Ramage Elementary School—named after the former city of Hays mayor who also served as a justice of the peace, school board member, board president and district volunteer—will be HCISD's 17th elementary school.

The new school is part of the $367.8 million 2023 bond. Construction estimates from contractor Bartlett Cocke state that substantial construction on Ramage should be completed by July 18, 2025.

Stay tuned

Per local policy, a minimum of two attendance zone map options and two public forums are required.

The board will vote to begin a rezoning process at its next regular meeting Sept. 24. Following this action, other regularly scheduled board meetings with attendance zone information for the community to know are:

• Oct. 21: attendance zone map drafts and data will be presented
• Oct. 28: first public forum will be held
• Nov. 12: second public forum will be held
• Nov. 18: possible action taken by board to vote on final attendance zone maps
• Dec. 16: alternate meeting scheduled if this process extends beyond the planned timeline