Redistricting proposals for KISD were presented to the school board Nov. 16 with further discussion Nov. 23. A number of elementary and junior high schools all over the district, with the exception of those north of I-10 and east of Grand Parkway, could be affected.
The proposed district lines would move students into the three new schools, which have yet to be named, and provide relief to existing schools that are landlocked and over 125 percent of their capacity.
One of the schools over capacity is West Memorial Elementary, according to Scott Dunlap, energy management coordinator and assistant demographer for KISD.
“West Memorial is the third smallest capacity school that we have,” Dunlap said. “It’s [capacity is] 680 and we have over 800 students in it right now. We’ll have over 900 students in it next year…[and] over 1,200 within three years.”
West Memorial Elementary’s capacity is stretched because of apartment growth in its boundaries, Dunlap said.
“There’s 15 apartment complexes either under construction, opened or planned inside of the West Memorial attendance zone today,” he said.
Dunlap presented a proposal to the school board to move 225 students from West Memorial Elementary to nearby Nottingham Country Elementary, which is just over halfway full with 630 students and a capacity for 1,053, he said.
Possible movement of special programs
During the meeting, parents with students at Nottingham Country Elementary, a school with programs for special needs students, voiced their concerns about the potential movement.
“I’m concerned that only design capacity has been taken into consideration in regard to the ABM (attendance boundary modification) and Nottingham Country, and functional capacity has been disregarded,” Lindsay Hunniford, a parent within the district said.
Hunniford with a group of Nottingham parents presented a packet of data to the school board indicating that the school’s enrollment is growing faster than what was projected. The data said enrollment was 8 percent more than what KISD projected in 2015 at 596 students.
Nottingham parent Shelley Landry said the faster rate of growth will cause KISD to move special needs students at Nottingham Country to other schools.
“They haven’t said that [these programs would move], but the numbers indicate they will have to be,” Landry said.
Dunlap said the district does not want to move special programs, like the bilingual classes at West Memorial Elementary, if the majority of students do not live within that new attendance zone.
KISD Chief Operating Officer Tom Gunnell said further research is needed on if programs and staff members will be relocated under the proposed changes.
“There is room within the district to move programs if we need to though," Gunnell said.
An official recommendation to the school board for a redistricting plan is expected in December, pending the collection of a parent survey by the district on its website.
Detailed information from KISD about the proposals can also be found on its website.
