Updated Dec. 16 at 5:10 p.m. to include vote from Dec. 14 school board meeting.

With existing capacity issues and three new schools opening in fall 2016, Katy ISD officials are working to accommodate enrollment growth through a redistricting plan that could affect an estimated 3,600 students.

The KISD school board approved a boundary modification plan in a 6-1 vote Dec. 14. Redistricting proposals for KISD were presented to the school board Nov. 16 with further discussion Nov. 23 and Dec. 7. A number of elementary and junior high schools throughout the district, except those north of I-10 and east of Grand Parkway, would be affected.

“I’m proud of the board,” KISD school board President Charles Griffin said. “Each person looked at the community with their own set of eyes.”

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 at more than 125 percent of their capacity.

One of the schools over capacity is West Memorial Elementary School, said 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’s capacity is stretched because of apartment growth within 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 to nearby Nottingham Country Elementary School, which was just over halfway full with 630 students and a capacity for 1,053, he said.

Special programs

During the Nov. 23 school board meeting, parents with students at Nottingham Country, which has programs for special needs students, voiced their concerns about the potential moves.

“I’m concerned that only design capacity has been taken into consideration in regard to the [attendance boundary modification] and Nottingham Country, and functional capacity has been disregarded,” said Lindsay Hunniford, a parent of a KISD student.

Hunniford and other Nottingham Country 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.

A survey given to parents by the district indicated that the much of the Nottingham Country respondents were opposed to the West Memorial rezoning move citing safety and traffic issues, crowding at Nottingham Country and its potential impact on special needs programs.   

KISD Chief Operating Officer Tom Gunnell made an official recommendation to the board Dec. 7 changing the West Memorial redistricting logistics by rezoning some students from the school to both Cimarron Elementary School and Nottingham Country rather than diverting them to  Nottingham Country.