What you need to know
The final attendance zoning map is the last iteration out of a monthslong process to create a new zoning map that will take effect in the 2025-26 academic school year.
The new map is a finalized version of the proposed map, Map Option 1, which was unveiled in early November and discussed at a board meeting Nov. 18.
The new map will directly impact 19 of the 53 current planning units. The affected planning units will be rezoned to attend different schools, and some have been split up into new units. Planning units are small subdivisions within attendance zones.
The board approved the new zoning map in a 5-2 vote, with trustees Shanda DeLeon and Tricia Quintero voting against the map, citing concerns about impacts to various neighborhoods and a lack of information on potential alternatives before reaching a decision.
The latest rezoning process comes as the district continues construction of a sixth elementary school and the expansion of Sycamore Springs Middle School.
The construction projects are part of the district’s plan to address overcapacity at Dripping Springs Elementary and Walnut Springs Elementary, and overcrowding across the entire district. The current 2024-25 academic school year has 8,900 students enrolled within DSISD, which is over the 8,850 capacity limit, as previously reported by Community Impact.
DSISD officials anticipate the most growth in the western and central part of the district. Current projections estimate over 1,500 more students within the Dripping Springs Middle School zone, over 1,400 more students in the Dripping Springs Elementary zone, and over 1,200 more students in the Walnut Springs Elementary zone, according to district documents.
The new map accounts for current and future growth within the district and attempts to balance out the overcapacity, Superintendent Holly Morris-Kuentz said. The major zoning changes will occur primarily to the east side planning units, rezoning them out of the current Walnut Springs and Dripping Springs zones.
DSISD created an Attendance Zoning Committee in August to begin the rezoning process. The committee is composed of parent representatives from each school, at-large community members, trustees DeLeon and Mary Jane Hetrick, school principals, and additional district staff.
The committee was tasked with creating new maps that considered the following charges:
- Optimizing utilization of district facilities while relieving overcrowded schools
- Prolonging need for future construction that would be needed to address overcapacity
- Considering a family’s proximity to schools and keep subdivisions together where possible, zoning students to the closest campuses
- Minimizing number of times a student is rezoned by considering future zoning changes as more zones are developed
Trustee DeLeon showed board members three potential map options in early December following the Nov. 18 board meeting and feedback about rezoning the Sunset Canyon neighborhood, but none were considered for recommendation. These were not shown to the public as they were “informal” recommendations, district officials said.
A final decision on the maps follows debate over which map best suits district needs. Many parents voiced concerns over road safety traveling to new schools and leaving their familiar communities.
Families in the Sunset Canyon neighborhood, part of Planning Unit 19, will be rezoned to attend Sycamore Springs schools. Sunset Canyon residents said they are concerned about the new travel route. The route would require students to travel south and make a left turn to cross Hwy. 290 to get to Sycamore Springs schools.
Breca Tracy, DSISD parent and Sunset Canyon resident, said the new route is unsafe for students.
“I don’t understand how taking an unprotected left on [Hwy.] 290 is a safe option for anyone,” she said at a board meeting Nov. 18. “I don't understand why our families are being put at risk when a safer option could have been just to stay in our neighborhood.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advises minimizing left turns in school bus routes, as it is a leading precrash event in all crashes, compared with right turns. Minimizing left turns also leads to more efficiency by reducing wait times at intersections.
Sunset Canyon, and all of Planning Unit 19, was not moved to Sycamore Springs in any of the three previous maps shown in October. All three starter maps had Planning Unit 19 rezoned to the new Elementary School No. 6.
DeLeon, who was in the Attendance Zoning Committee, said she disapproves of the new zones because of impacts to the Sunset Canyon neighborhood and not rezoning other planning units.
“There could have been other moves,” she said at the Dec. 16 board meeting. “I stand firm in my thought that this is not the best map for the community.”
Other community members said that the new map best accommodates district growth. Mandy Cook, Attendance Zoning Committee member and Cypress Springs resident, said moving 19B to Sycamore Springs considers capacity across the district while accounting for more students in the west side.
“You have to balance the schools on the east side of town—Rooster, Sycamore, Cypress— to allow them for the future growth on the west side,” Cook said. “There's two schools right now on the west side of town. So with the third elementary being built, and if the heat maps are pushing more growth west as well, with elementary No. 7 on the horizon, you have to look at where structurally those numbers are to balance the east side.”
Hetrick, who also served on the Attendance Zoning Committee, said the final map considers multiple issues, from growth to student outcomes and teacher experiences.
“Nobody’s wrong or right,” she said. “It’s competing values. It could be because [people] want to stay west because they went to school here, or there could be a priority of listening to the teachers who are begging, ‘Have that balance so we don’t have overcrowding in year two.’”
Morris-Kuentz said no proposed map would be a silver-bullet solution to addressing overcapacity while accommodating all community feedback.
“It’s statistically impossible for us to create a map that does everything we asked and for it to make everybody happy,” Morris-Kuentz said.
What’s next
DSISD will publish rules on grandfathering students no later than Jan. 31, district officials said. Morris-Kuentz said potential grandfathering rules will allow the following:
- Rising third and fourth graders will be able to stay at their current elementary for fourth and fifth grades.
- Rising sixth and seventh graders will be able to stay at their current middle school for seventh and eighth grades.
- Siblings of students who are eligible to be grandfathered will also be eligible for grandfathering.
The new attendance zoning map will take effect for the upcoming 2025-26 school year. The next elementary school rezoning may occur for the 2027-28 academic school year,, and middle school zoning may occur for the 2028-29 academic school year, according to district documents.
