Spurred by yearly transfer requests, 68 students at The Grant Valley Ranch apartments zoned to Canyon Ranch Elementary will now attend Valley Ranch Elementary, a campus about 150 yards from the complex. Sixty-seven students residing in Cypress Waters apartments at the intersection of Wharf Road and Olympus Boulevard, and one student in The Flats, a section of townhomes down the street, will attend Cottonwood Creek Elementary to alleviate enrollment strain at Richard J. Lee Elementary.
The Coppell ISD board of trustees approved the rezone on Feb. 26.
“It’s significant, anytime you’re moving families,” Superintendent Brad Hunt said. “As a district, we wanted to have the board make a consideration sooner rather than later so families can plan.”
The details
Rezoning students to Valley Ranch was rather straightforward, with over half of the families at The Grant apartments requesting transfers last year, according to district documents. The campus is close enough to the complex for students to walk safely, removing the need for district transportation. However, the district’s decision to rezone Cypress Waters was less cut and dry.
Richard J. Lee has the highest enrollment of district elementary schools and is projected to nearly max its 740-student capacity in the 2024-25 school year, according to data from Zonda Education, an agency that tracks district demographics. This was the driving force behind the rezone to Cottonwood Creek, which is farthest from full capacity.
But Cottonwood Creek is also the second-farthest campus from the area at just over 4 miles away—a point raised by Coppell resident Kevin Chaka during the Feb. 26 open forum. As a lifelong resident, Chaka said he wanted to ensure the district considered all alternatives and remained transparent in their reasoning.
“Even though it doesn’t impact me personally, I thought it would be good to bring up some points that the board could discuss in a public forum,” he said.
Pinkerton Elementary would be the next closest option after Richard J. Lee, but it will be at 90% capacity next year. For Chaka, the students transferring to Valley Ranch provide a compelling vacancy at Canyon Ranch that Cypress Waters families could fill. It's also the third-closest campus.
Zooming in
The district is expected to see an enrollment decline for all elementary schools over the next few years, according to Zonda Education data. The dips relate to a kindergarten enrollment deficit the past four years forecast to affect elementary schools as students matriculate. Pinkerton, Valley Ranch and Richard J. Lee are expected to grow until the 2024-25 school year when they will join in the decline.
The administration considered these factors, but despite the eventual decreases, Canyon Ranch still has the second-highest enrollment of all the campuses, and rezoning students there would exacerbate the growth issue for the district’s southern region, Hunt said.
District officials looked at Lakeside, Austin, Mockingbird and Wilson elementary schools, but decided against them due to pending construction projects outlined for the campuses in the 2023 bond making them a poor choice long term, Hunt said.
“We recognize these are tough decisions, and they're not easy for anyone, but we looked at every single one of those elementary schools as we finally landed on Cottonwood Creek,” he said.
Additionally, moving the students to Valley Ranch freed up space at Canyon Ranch to filter a growing prekindergarten population, which is largely localized in the southern part of the district. These students commute to the northern schools, said Kristen Eichel, assistant superintendent for administrative services.
Canyon Ranch has several pre-K classrooms that are underutilized, and in a single motion the district could take advantage of these spaces while also zoning the students to the area they live in, Eichel said.
Also of note
Hunt assured the zone change wouldn’t affect a child’s prospective middle schools. Students would attend their originally zoned middle schools rather than the campus their new elementary school feeds into, he said.
The feeder patterns might not be affected, but students could lose out on essential bonding by growing into new schools without familiar classmates, trustee Leigh Walker said. Transfer options exist, although approval isn’t guaranteed.
“You can’t underestimate the power of forming those groups in elementary school that then move into middle school,” Walker said.
Students may also experience a slight shift when transitioning from newer schools like Richard J. Lee, which tend toward modernity and innovation compared to the more classic and traditional style of Cottonwood Creek, which was built in the '90s, Chaka said. And parents with students engaged in after-school activities may find it more challenging to remain involved, he said.
“But at the end of the day, Coppell has great schools, so I think the kids will be doing great wherever they end up,” he said.
