Board adds provisions to school boundary change policy

The Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees voted Monday to add language to the district’s attendance boundary change policies that spell out situations a student would be exempt from an otherwise required school transfer. Those situations include students who have had to attend different schools at least three or more years consecutively, students entering grades 10 through 12, students entering grade five or grade eight if their school’s projected utilization does not exceed 120 percent, and students who had been forced to transfer because of a previous boundary change while attending the same school level. However, the provision also states that the district will not provide transportation to and from school for these students. The decision came at a meeting packed with parents concerned about where their children would be required to attend school after the district remaps its attendance boundaries. Before the vote, Missouri City resident Ben Kahn addressed the board, expressing unhappiness that the proposed boundary changes would require his children and other students in the Shipman’s Landing subdivision to be moved to Scanlan Oaks Elementary School before eventually transferring to Baines Middle School after fifth grade. “They’re the only group in Sienna Plantation that would be rezoned twice,” said Kahn, before asking the board to keep the school feeder patterns the same, “instead of having to switch twice.”  

New school names announced

Trustees approved names for the four schools set to open in the next two years. Elementary School No. 48 will be named Donald Leonetti Elementary, after the FBISD graduate and founder of Leonetti Graphics who supported public education, schools, athletic teams, along with other local civic organizations. Elementary School No. 49 will be named James C. Neill Elementary, after 19th century soldier and politician who is most noted for his role in the Texas Revolution and early defense of Alamo. Elementary School No. 50 will be named James Patterson Elementary  after the former FBISD math teacher, coach and principal, and the current Fort Bend County commissioner, representing Precinct 4. Middle School No. 15 will be named Ronald Thornton Middle School after the former band director and fine arts department chair at FBISD’s Willowridge High School from 1989 until his passing in 2009.  

District calls for independence in designing assessment methods

The board approved a resolution calling on state lawmakers to allow school districts to design their own methods to assess the performance of their schools, and to cancel plans to begin next year assigning schools letter grades that will be based largely on students’ scores on standardized tests. The resolution states the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, which 55 percent of a school’s grade will be based upon, “does not accurately measure student learning; and…provides little meaningful information to guide student learning, inform teachers or report academic progress to parents.” The resolution cites a recent statewide survey in which a majority of respondents indicated they did not support basing school ratings on standardized test scores.