The Katy ISD board of trustees received a preliminary report from K12 Insight regarding proposed attendance boundary modifications for Elementary School 42 and Junior High School 16 on Monday night. K12 Insight is a consulting firm helping KISD gather input from parents regarding the proposed boundaries.

At the Sept. 17 work study meeting, Shelby McIntosh, K12 Insight vice president of client success, delivered the preliminary results of the report, which consists of the results of an online poll KISD parents can participate in to give their opinions on the plans. The two schools are expected to open for the 2019-20 school year.

K12 Insight began conducting the survey June 20 and will have the survey open through mid-October. Final results will be considered by the board Dec. 10 and will be used to help decide which proposed boundaries are best for the new schools.

“It is important to note, again, that these [surveys] are ongoing. We pulled these results on Sept. 11,” McIntosh said.

For the proposed elementary school zoning, 23 percent of respondents said their child had previously been affected by an attendance boundary modification, and 34 percent of those parents said their children had seen positive outcomes as a result. Negative outcomes were reported by 26 percent of those parents, with 40 percent saying their children’s experiences were neutral.

Parents responding to the survey said Option 1 was their favored option out of the elementary proposals. However, parents speaking at the meeting said they felt Option 3 was the best proposed and questioned the presentation of Option 1 as “preferred” in the survey.

Stephen Blackwell, a KISD parent who spoke at the event, said he is concerned the numbers associated with student populations after the proposed boundary changes concerned him and appeared unbalanced. He also expressed concern that the decision-making process appeared to only look at numbers and social impacts on students were not being considered.

“I really urge you to factor in the feeder patterns, because as [the KISD board of trustees] always say, they’re very important to this,” Blackwell said.

The junior high school portion of the study revealed 29 percent of the parents had children who had previously been affected by an attendance boundary modification. Of those, 27 percent reported a positive experience and 26 percent indicated a negative result for their children.

McIntosh said Option 3 was the most popular zoning option for the Junior High School to date.

Trustee Rebecca Fox said she felt it was important for the district to consider the effects moving schools would have on students affected by the boundary modifications.

However, other board members pointed out the need for practicality in the final decision.

“We are going to have to make a decision about due diligence [for the] protection of the taxpayers [and] due diligence of getting the maximum use of facilities,” trustee George Scott said.