The Spring ISD board of trustees.[/caption]

The Spring ISD board of trustees is examining new attendance boundary scenarios to respond to enrollment changes that have left some schools overcrowded and others with capacity for growth. Two community meetings will be held later this month—at 6 p.m. on Feb. 16 at Wells and Dueitt middle schools and on Feb. 23 at Twin Creeks and Bammel middle schools—to present the scenarios to parents and offer opportunities for discussion. A community survey will be available at www.springisd.org beginning Monday, Feb. 13 to solicit input from parents and other district residents.

Several proposed changes discussed at the Feb. 9 work session include moving:

• 290 students from Clark to Heritage elementary schools


• 90 students from Heritage to Link Elementary School


• 120 students from Hoyland to Eickenroht elementary schools


• 80 students from Bammel to Meyer elementary schools.

Shifts are also proposed to the boundaries of the district's three high schools to create more even distribution of students in each school.

The proposed changes would allow more of the district's middle schools to feed directly into a single high school, instead of the feeder patterns breaking middle schools into two different high schools. The proposals also eliminate many boundaries for schools that would require students to cross major thoroughfares such as I-45 to reach the school to which they are assigned.

If approved, changes to elementary school boundaries would take effect in the 2017-18 school year. Proposed short-term and long-term scenarios for district middle schools would be phased in over several years until the district’s new middle school opens in 2020. Proposed changes to high school boundaries would become effective in the 2020-21 school year.

Items also discussed at the Thursday night meeting include:

• Templeton Demographics projected that new development in the area will cause district enrollment to grow by 972 students in five years and by 1,767 students in ten years. Demographers forecast an enrollment of about 38,000 by the school year 2026-27.


• SISD Chief Operations Officer Mark Miranda presented an updated timeline for projects that will be funded by the $330 bond referendum passed by voters last year.
  
  Those projects include:
  2017
  Technology infrastructure improvements
  Begin expanding prekindergarten programs
  Police command center renovation
  Purchase new school buses
  Begin safety and security upgrades
  
  2018
  Purchase technology devices
  Designs begin on next projects
  
  2019
  Complete Dekaney ninth-grade center
  Complete new campus for Roberson Middle School
  Finalize replacement stadium
  
  2020
  Complete ninth-grade centers at Spring and Westfield high schools
  New campus for eighth middle school campus


• The agenda for the work session also included a discussion of a resolution for SISD to initiate the process of designation as a District of Innovation,
  which gives them more flexibility in planning, establishing class sizes and attendance policies