Another attendance zone draft map has been created for Ramage Elementary School—Hays CISD’s 17th elementary school set to open for the 2025-26 school year—and brought to the board of trustees for consideration during the Oct. 28 board meeting.

The map brings the total number of draft maps to five, and a sixth map draft is in the works.

How we got here

The board previously discussed the first four draft map options during its regular board meeting Oct. 21. Chief Communications Officer Tim Savoy said the fifth and newest map builds off Map 2, which was the map recommended by staff during the Oct. 21 meeting.

Savoy said the map drafts are an “evolving process,” and staff is currently working on a draft for Map 6, which will also build off Map 2.

The details

Map 2 primarily pulls students from the current Hemphill Elementary zone to Ramage, as well as some eastern portions of the Fuentes Elementary zone. It also adds an additional group of Fuentes students who live north of Bunton Lane.

According to agenda documents, Map 5 uses Map 2 as a base and also:

• Pulls students from the current Hemphill Elementary zone and a portion of the Camino Real Elementary zone east of Hwy. 21
• Makes an adjustment to a small portion of territory currently zoned for Uhland Elementary and moves students to Science Hall Elementary
• Helps balances student populations at Uhland Elementary and Simon Middle School
• Keeps attendance areas as stable as possible

Agenda documents also state that provisions for Map 5 allows affected students entering fifth, seventh or eighth grade in 2025-26, as well as their siblings so families can have all students attend the same campus, remain at their current campuses if they choose.

Something to note

The board is anticipated to vote on a final map at its Dec. 16 board meeting instead of Nov. 18, as previously expected.

The Dec. 16 meeting was kept as a placeholder if the draft process extended beyond the planned timeline. Savoy said the district is receiving an updated demographers report in November, which could extend the draft process.

“I think our maps that we’re developing will still be good, but before we bring them to you to vote on, ... I want to have those new numbers from the demographer in November assigned to our proposed maps that we’re bringing to you just to make sure that there isn’t an anomaly,” Savoy said.

The number of early elementary through fifth grade students across all 17 HCISD elementary campuses is projected to increase by over 8,000 through 2033, per the most recent data from Population and Survey Analysts.

Get involved

Community members can continue to submit feedback on the attendance map drafts here, as well as in person at the next board meeting Nov. 12.