At a Jan. 15 workshop, district officials provided details about affected neighborhoods and the impact to middle school feeder patterns, while trustees discussed any possible changes.
The district strived to preserve existing feeder patterns, keep program cohorts together and maintain efficient transportation patterns when drafting the plan, Superintendent Brad Hunt said.
Some context
With the consolidation of Pinkerton Elementary last year, 75% of its students will be rezoned to Wilson Elementary and 25% to Austin Elementary. Last year, trustees also approved moving the elementary International Baccalaureate program from Pinkerton Elementary to Wilson Elementary and consolidating Wilson’s Dual Language Immersion program to Denton Creek Elementary.
As a result of the closures and the program shifts, the district plans to adjust multiple attendance zones to make space at the campuses, according to district documents.
In the proposed plan, Denton Creek attendance zones could be adjusted to Town Center, Cottonwood Creek and Lakeside elementary schools, and Austin Elementary attendance zones could be adjusted to Town Center and Lakeside.
The details
There are about 10 areas within the district that will be impacted by the proposed rezoning, Chief Financial Officer Diana Sircar said. Four areas zoned to Denton Creek Elementary will be rezoned.
One student from the southern portion of the Creekside Manufactured Home Community near Shady Creek Lane and Creekside Drive, 51 students from the east section of Westhaven and 17 students from East Lake will be rezoned to Cottonwood Creek Elementary, according to plan documents. These neighborhoods are west of Denton Tap Road.
On the east side of Denton Tap Road, 23 students from a group of neighborhoods including Waterford at Lake Park, Peninsulas of Coppell and Prestwick will be rezoned to Town Center Elementary. Around 30 students from Andrew Estates, Stratford Manor, The Estates Cambridge Manor, Deforest Court and Windsor Estates will be rezoned to Lakeside Elementary.
Two areas zoned to Austin Elementary will be rezoned, and an area in the east side of the Pinkerton Elementary boundary will be rezoned to Austin, Sircar said.
An estimated 67 students west of Samuel Boulevard in the Parkwood subdivision will be rezoned to Lakeside Elementary. Around 65 students living in Town Creek Apartments, 24 in Meadowridge Townhomes and four in Austin Place will be rezoned to Town Center Elementary. The 55 students in Hidden Valley Estates and 27 in Creek View neighborhood currently zoned to Pinkerton will be rezoned to Austin in the proposed plan.
Wilson Elementary will absorb the remaining Pinkerton students not moving to Austin, and a small section of neighborhoods zoned to Wilson will be rezoned, Sircar said.
According to plan documents, 23 students living North of Sandy Lake Road in Kensington Estates, Bellacere, Shadydale Acres and Oak Trail will be rezoned from Wilson to Cottonwood Creek. All students west of South Denton Tap Road currently attending Pinkerton Elementary will now go to Wilson Elementary. This includes the following:
- 31 students in Hunterwood
- 3 students in Old Coppell Town Homes
- 20 students in Big Cedar
- 5 students in Country States
- 2 students in Grand Cove Estates
- 7 students in Villas at Lost Creek
- 8 students in Old Coppell Estates
- 8 students in The Reserve at Coppell
- 9 students in Summit at The Springs
- 2 students in Villas of Southwestern
- 5 students in North Lake Estates
- 5 students in Avenue at Denton Tap
- 2 students in Hammond Town Homes
- 37 students in Main Street
- 4 students in Old Town Main Street
With the program consolidations, Wilson families had to decide in December to continue with the Dual Language Immersion program at Denton Creek or leave the program to remain at Wilson. International Baccalaureate students were faced with a similar decision opting to either leave the program or follow it to Wilson.
According to responses from CISD families out of around 175 students in the International Baccalaureate program who filled out the form, 144 have chosen to continue with the program, Sircar said. For the Dual Language Immersion program, about 152 students who filled out the form will follow the program to Denton Creek, and 26 chose to remain at Wilson.
CISD had 204 students in the Dual Language Immersion program before consolidation, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
Zooming in
In March, CISD rezoned around 67 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, to Cottonwood Creek Elementary to alleviate enrollment strain at Richard J. Lee Elementary. In the proposed plan, these students will be rezoned back to Lee.
“That was never meant to be a permanent change; it was more of an overflow at Lee temporarily," Hunt said.
Trustees also raised the possibility of amending the plan so that students being rezoned from Pinkerton to Austin would instead move to Mockingbird Elementary. Sircar said the district chose Austin initially due to it being a closer walking distance to affected neighborhoods.
“Students would be figuratively passing if not literally passing Austin to get to Mockingbird,” Hunt said.
According to plan documents, elementary zones for Canyon Ranch and Valley Ranch elementary schools will remain unchanged.
Also of note
In the CISD elementary to middle school feeder patterns, Coppell Middle School East serves Austin, Lakeside and Mockingbird. Coppell Middle School North serves Cottonwood Creek, Denton Creek, Town Center and Wilson. Coppell Middle School West serves Canyon Ranch, Richard J. Lee and Valley Ranch.
The proposal included slight boundary adjustments at the middle school level. In the proposed plan, there are no changes to feeder patterns, but Coppell Middle School North’s zone will be adjusted to incorporate the additional students moving to Wilson as a result of the Pinkerton closure, Sircar said.
While patterns haven’t changed, some rezoned students such as those from Denton Creek to Lakeside Elementary will now attend Coppell Middle School East instead of Coppell Middle School North, and students rezoned from Austin to Town Center will attend Coppell Middle School North instead of Coppell Middle School East.
Additionally, Pinkerton students rezoned to Austin will still attend Coppell Middle School East, and there will be no change in middle schools for students moving from Wilson to Cottonwood Creek, according to plan documents.
Looking ahead
The district will allow limited transfers requests for families that want to remain at their zoned campus, Hunt said. Trustees will digest the discussions, and staff will consider the board’s input before bringing the item back for possible approval Feb. 3.
Officials said that more information will be shared at that meeting on how many of the 26 Dual Language Immersion students who chose to leave the program were emergent bilingual students as well as any classroom section changes associated with the rezoning. The Dual Language Immersion program seeks to create bilingual and biliterate students, and is the district’s chosen model to serve its emergent bilingual students as required by the state.
The district could shake up boundaries again in future years if officials pursue additional facility retirements as it gears up to begin the review process again with the convening of the efficiency review committee Jan. 21.
“These kinds of decisions are never easy, and people know it's coming. You don’t just close a school and not move people around, but we are trying our best to be forward thinking,” Hunt said.
