The FISD board of trustees unanimously finalized attendance zones for the next school year Nov. 14 to accommodate the district’s newest schools and alleviate overcrowding at other campuses.
Over the past 21 years, FISD has rezoned 18 times to balance enrollment and accommodate the opening of 63 new campuses. The most recent rezoning was prompted by Wilkinson Middle School, which will serve students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, and Wortham Intermediate School, which will serve students in the fifth and sixth grades. Both campuses will open next fall.
The new Wilkinson Middle School will pull from students who live in the Trent Middle School zone. The opening of Wortham Intermediate School will affect Comstock, Elliott and Ogle elementary schools, as well as Scoggins, Lawler and Vandeventer middle schools, with Scoggins growing and pulling from Lawler and Vandeventer.
When the intermediate campus opens, Comstock, Elliott and Ogle will transition to serving students through fourth grade, while Scoggins will become a seventh and eighth grade campus. The goal is for students zoned to the new intermediate school to attend classes together starting in fifth grade and enroll as a group to Scoggins and then Emerson High School, according to an FISD news release.
The district received more than 300 messages from concerned community members within the month-long period designated for collecting feedback after proposed zones were released, Chief Operations Officer Scott Warstler told the board.
In an attempt to balance community feedback with enrollment numbers, exceptions were granted as part of the adopted plan that gives students starting fifth grade next year an option to stay at their current school. These are the zone changes this exception will apply to:
- Allen to Bledsoe;
- Riddle to Smith;
- Spears to Shawnee Trail; and
- McSpedden to Talley.
Another exception is being made for students who will be in eighth grade next year who attend Vandeventer and are being moved to Scoggins, and Lawler students who are being moved to Scoggins and Vandeventer. Students who will be in fourth grade next year at Isbell Elementary School and are being moved to Comstock also have the option to stay at Isbell.
The district has seven schools currently at capacity, including Trent Middle School. The new attendance zones will reopen Trent.
To accommodate four elementary schools that are at capacity in the district, changes were made to the attendance zones in the central and eastern parts of the district.
School attendance zone changes are routine for FISD. As Frisco’s population grows, rezoning takes place to preserve the district’s small school model, which supports students having opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities, officials said.
The district implements enrollment changes to keep high schools under 2,100 students, middle schools under 900 students and elementary schools under 760 students, officials told Community Impact in previous interviews.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect the latest maps from the school district.
