In October, trustees were presented with proposed maps for changed attendance zones for schools within the district. This district has seven campuses at capacity, a FISD newsletter stated. These include four elementary schools and three middle schools. All new students who move to one of these campus attendance zones are being enrolled at neighboring schools, the newsletter stated.
To provide relief, next year FISD will open Shana K. Wortham Intermediate School and Richard A. Wilkinson Middle School to provide capacity relief, staff said. It marks the district’s first intermediate school and will serve fifth- and sixth-grade students.
FISD Chief Operations Officer Scott Warstler said with the proposed rezoning, most of those closed campuses will open back up next year.
“[That’s] a positive for not only incoming families, but families who maybe moved in this year and had to go to an overflow campus. They’ll be able next year to go back to their own campus,” he said.
The one exception is Nelson Middle School, which will remain closed next year, he said.
Toward the end of the meeting, Warstler explained the district is looking to build a new middle school in the Brinkmann Ranch area in the next few years. Rezoning Nelson right now would move established neighborhoods to one school for two or three years and then move them to a new school again later, he said. Leaving the school closed means families who have been established in that area are not affected, he said.
“Neither solution is the perfect solution, we understand that, but that's some of the thought that goes into that decision,” Warstler said.
The public hearing about the attendance zone changes was originally scheduled for Nov. 3; however, modifications had been made to the proposed maps that caused the public hearing to be moved.
“Moving this meeting gave the community a bit more time to sit with the maps and understand them,” Board President Rene Archamboult said.
Based on community feedback, the new proposal affects 544 fewer students than the initial proposal, according to the district website.
During the public hearing, more than 20 speakers came forward to express their concerns and ask questions about the proposed attendance zone changes.
The majority of speakers talked about the proposed rezoning from McSpedden Elementary School to Talley Elementary School or were in zones that were not changing. Those speaking about the elementary school attendance zone changes expressed concerns that these young students had hardly known what a “normal” school year was like after going through online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that this would be another change for them to cope with.
None of the high school zones are being changed, which some students spoke against, as some families are having students remain at one high school and other students entering high school for the first time now attending a different school. For this reason, those speaking requested sibling exceptions, which are not currently being proposed.
Trustees are expected to take action and approve a proposed zoning change plan at the Nov. 14 board of trustees meeting.
FISD Deputy Superintendent Todd Fouche said attendance zone changes are “the hardest thing our staff does every year.”
“We have been the fastest-growing school district in the United States, and a lot of people talked about stability. It's hard to have stability for students when 3,500 students a year are moving in our district,” Fouche said. “I think over the next five years we see our growth starting to stabilize. And I think we can have longer-term projections as we go forward. But as we're still building schools because people are moving in, we have to have somewhere to put them, and that puts us in a tough situation.”
To see the proposed zoning change plan and maps, visit www.friscoisd.org/departments/attendance-zones/rezoning.
