The district plans to respond to development along the US 287 corridor by opening a seventh middle school in Haslet’s LeTara development. The new school will be part of a proposition in the May bond election, but projections show that Adams and Wilson middle schools will need to adjust boundaries before Middle School No. 7 can open for the 2023-24 school year.
Based on new and planned housing developments, the district projects that 1,687 students will attend Adams starting in 2022-23, far more than the school’s capacity of 1,200. According to NISD Assistant Superintendent for Facilities Tim McClure, students at Adams would be forced to move to Wilson in 2022 if the district did not approve the boundary adjustments.
“Nearly 1,700 students at one middle school is really not doable,” he said.
Students in fifth grade and eighth grade, who are in their final year at their school, will be allowed to stay at their current school when the district adjusts boundaries. McClure said that moving the boundaries now will give students the option to spend all three years at Wilson rather than potentially moving every year of middle school.
Changes will also affect the district at the elementary level.
The boundary lines between Cox and Roanoke elementary schools will be adjusted, and the boundary lines for Tidwell and Medlin middle schools, which Cox and Roanoke feed into, will be adjusted to match.
The district also made similar adjustments to the boundary lines between Justin and Prairie View elementary schools and Chisholm Trail and Pike middle schools, which McClure said will help prevent families on the north side of the district from having to travel long distances between schools if they have both elementary and middle school-age children.
In addition, a new elementary school will open on the southern edge of the district for the 2021-22 school year, and the change in boundaries will relieve Curtis, Nance and Schluter elementary schools.
“This is probably one of those very unique scenarios that we don’t get to come across very often: opening a boundary that won’t change very much in the future,” McClure said, referring to the new elementary school, which will be the district’s 20th. “This is probably its final boundary.”
A vote on new boundaries was initially supposed to take place at a Feb. 22 board meeting but was moved due to a severe winter storm that affected most of the state.
