With five new schools planned to come online in the next three years, Fort Bend ISD is considering new attendance boundaries in the Missouri City and Richmond areas. The school district held community meetings Tuesday and Wednesday to unveil its preliminary boundary changes for elementary schools Nos. 48, 49, 50, 51 and Middle School No. 15.
In Sienna Plantation
New boundaries for ES No. 48 and MS No. 15 are expected to affect Scanlan Oaks, Sienna Crossing, Heritage Rose and Schiff elementary schools. ES No. 48 is scheduled to open for the 2017-18 school year, with MS No. 15 to follow in the 2018-19 school year, according to the district.
Scott Leopold, a consultant with education planning firm DeJONG-RICHTER working for FBISD, said some students would be transferred from Heritage Rose ES to ES No. 48, increasing that school's enrollment to about 331. Schiff ES students living south of the future Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road would move to Sienna Crossing ES.
All students at ES No. 48 would transfer to MS No. 15, while Scanlan Oaks Elementary would send 70 percent of its students to MS No. 15 and 30 percent to Baines Middle School.
Heritage Rose ES would send 45 percent of its students to Baines Middle School and 55 percent to MS No. 15. Schiff and Sienna Crossing elementary schools would each send all their students to Baines Middle School, Leopold said.
A paved road will be built from MS No. 15 to FM 521, Leopold said, and is scheduled for completion in January 2018, a project that FBISD Board President Kristin Tassin said trustees advocated.
“I think it’s a safety issue and I don’t think we can zone kids to a school that they don’t have access to,” she said.
Keeping the diversity
Leopold said the district tried to honor a “neighborhood school” concept without changing the level of diversity. FBISD is considering moving Heritage Rose ES’ bilingual program—or part of it—to ES No. 48, augmenting it at the new school.
Tassin, who has a child at Heritage Rose Elementary, said she would need more time to study the plans but called them a “good stab.”
“Personally and as the board president, my feedback was on diversity and balance,” she said. “It was no secret that in the first rezoning [in January 2015] we tried to have more diversity at Heritage Rose.”
Heritage Rose ES' 2014-15 Texas Education Agency school report card, the latest available, showed the campus was 94.2 percent nonwhite, 73.3 percent economically disadvantaged and had a limited English proficient population of 50.6 percent.
Parents give feedback
FBISD is accepting feedback on the boundary plans and will present a formal recommendation to the board of trustees in January, said Beth Martinez, FBISD chief of staff and strategic planning. At Ridge Point High School Wednesday, parents viewed the plans up close and gave their comments.
Connie Compagnino has two children at Sienna Crossing Elementary. She was concerned that her kindergartner would get transferred to Scanlan Oaks Elementary, because when it came time to transfer to a middle school, only 30 percent of her child’s classmates would attend Baines Middle School.
“She’ll have a bit of a separation of friendship,” Compagnino said. “I know it’s all about numbers for these people but at the end of the day, it’s our kids and they're human.”
Nicole Waters and Kelly Wilmot send their children to Scanlan Oaks, and Waters said she was fine with the plans. She said her child would feed to MS No. 15, while Wilmot said her child would attend Baines Middle School first, before being transferred to MS No. 15.
“I think they did an OK job trying to make everybody happy,” Wilmot said.
In Richmond
Boundary changes for ES Nos. 49, 50 and 51 are proposed in two phases, Martinez said. During phase 1, students will be taken from Oakland and Madden elementary schools and put at ES No. 49.
Students attending Madden Elementary School and ES No. 49 will be split between Bowie and Garcia middle schools.
During phase 2, Madden Elementary students that had been moved to ES No. 49 in phase 1 will then be moved to ES No. 51. This would include students in Aliana west of Madden Elementary and south of West Airport Boulevard, as well as students in Windsor Estates.
Students from Old Orchard who attend Madden Elementary will also be moved to ES No. 51 during phase 2. All of ES No. 51 will feed into Garcia Middle. The Bradford Park, Grand Vista and Mission Sierra neighborhoods would move to ES No. 50, Martinez said.
ES No. 49 in Harvest Green and ES No. 50 in Grand Vista are planned to open for the 2017-18 school year. ES No. 51 is planned to open in Aliana in 2019-20, but Martinez said the site is still in the planning stages.
All plans and boundary maps are currently on the district’s
website.
New boundaries for ES No. 48 and MS No. 15 are expected to affect Scanlan Oaks, Sienna Crossing, Heritage Rose and Schiff elementary schools. ES No. 48 is scheduled to open for the 2017-18 school year, with MS No. 15 to follow in the 2018-19 school year, according to the district.
Scott Leopold, a consultant with education planning firm DeJONG-RICHTER working for FBISD, said some students would be transferred from Heritage Rose ES to ES No. 48, increasing that school's enrollment to about 331. Schiff ES students living south of the future Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road would move to Sienna Crossing ES.
All students at ES No. 48 would transfer to MS No. 15, while Scanlan Oaks Elementary would send 70 percent of its students to MS No. 15 and 30 percent to Baines Middle School.
Heritage Rose ES would send 45 percent of its students to Baines Middle School and 55 percent to MS No. 15. Schiff and Sienna Crossing elementary schools would each send all their students to Baines Middle School, Leopold said.
A paved road will be built from MS No. 15 to FM 521, Leopold said, and is scheduled for completion in January 2018, a project that FBISD Board President Kristin Tassin said trustees advocated.
“I think it’s a safety issue and I don’t think we can zone kids to a school that they don’t have access to,” she said.
Keeping the diversity
Leopold said the district tried to honor a “neighborhood school” concept without changing the level of diversity. FBISD is considering moving Heritage Rose ES’ bilingual program—or part of it—to ES No. 48, augmenting it at the new school.
Tassin, who has a child at Heritage Rose Elementary, said she would need more time to study the plans but called them a “good stab.”
“Personally and as the board president, my feedback was on diversity and balance,” she said. “It was no secret that in the first rezoning [in January 2015] we tried to have more diversity at Heritage Rose.”
Heritage Rose ES' 2014-15 Texas Education Agency school report card, the latest available, showed the campus was 94.2 percent nonwhite, 73.3 percent economically disadvantaged and had a limited English proficient population of 50.6 percent.
Parents give feedback
FBISD is accepting feedback on the boundary plans and will present a formal recommendation to the board of trustees in January, said Beth Martinez, FBISD chief of staff and strategic planning. At Ridge Point High School Wednesday, parents viewed the plans up close and gave their comments.
Connie Compagnino has two children at Sienna Crossing Elementary. She was concerned that her kindergartner would get transferred to Scanlan Oaks Elementary, because when it came time to transfer to a middle school, only 30 percent of her child’s classmates would attend Baines Middle School.
“She’ll have a bit of a separation of friendship,” Compagnino said. “I know it’s all about numbers for these people but at the end of the day, it’s our kids and they're human.”
Nicole Waters and Kelly Wilmot send their children to Scanlan Oaks, and Waters said she was fine with the plans. She said her child would feed to MS No. 15, while Wilmot said her child would attend Baines Middle School first, before being transferred to MS No. 15.
“I think they did an OK job trying to make everybody happy,” Wilmot said.
In Richmond
Boundary changes for ES Nos. 49, 50 and 51 are proposed in two phases, Martinez said. During phase 1, students will be taken from Oakland and Madden elementary schools and put at ES No. 49.
Students attending Madden Elementary School and ES No. 49 will be split between Bowie and Garcia middle schools.
During phase 2, Madden Elementary students that had been moved to ES No. 49 in phase 1 will then be moved to ES No. 51. This would include students in Aliana west of Madden Elementary and south of West Airport Boulevard, as well as students in Windsor Estates.
Students from Old Orchard who attend Madden Elementary will also be moved to ES No. 51 during phase 2. All of ES No. 51 will feed into Garcia Middle. The Bradford Park, Grand Vista and Mission Sierra neighborhoods would move to ES No. 50, Martinez said.
ES No. 49 in Harvest Green and ES No. 50 in Grand Vista are planned to open for the 2017-18 school year. ES No. 51 is planned to open in Aliana in 2019-20, but Martinez said the site is still in the planning stages.
All plans and boundary maps are currently on the district’s website.
