In a nutshell
The vote will accelerate a policy revision where students attending academies, or any other program of choice, will have their GPA ranked in accordance with the high school they attend rather than the campus their street address is zoned to.
Dozens of speakers at the Oct. 21 meeting said they opposed the district expediting the policy change, saying it could have a negative impact on students who have made decisions based on the previous policy. Others argued the policy that first impacted the class of 2024 is unfair and caused drops class rankings and missed scholarship opportunities.
The backstory
The board drafted the original policy revision in December 2019 in response to reports of students enrolling in academies at high schools outside of their attendance boundary to rise into the top 10%, which guarantees students admission to many public universities in Texas, according to the Texas Comptroller's Office.
FBISD’s academies are housed at designated campuses throughout the district but are open for anyone in the district to apply for and attend. The academies provide specialized learning opportunities such as medical science or engineering, according to the district website.
The 2019 policy first impacted the graduating class of 2024. However, during its first year, district officials said multiple students used false addresses to be zoned at different schools than they attended to receive higher rankings. This spurred trustees to reconsider the policy in August 2023 and make plans to reverse the policy beginning with the class of 2028.
How they voted
While trustees agreed ranking students in the high school of their attendance zone wasn’t working, they disagreed on how soon to implement the change. Trustees Sonya Jones, David Hamilton and Adam Schoof said they wanted to dissolve the policy immediately to affect students graduating in 2025.
Superintendent Marc Smith recommended trustees wait until at least the class of 2026 to reverse the policy.
“If the board chose to do something different than honoring the 2028 policy, ... the 2026 would be my recommendation so we could, again, plan and allocate the proper time to transition our students,” he said.
Ultimately, Jones and trustee Angie Hanan voted against implementing the policy next year.
What they’re saying
Parent Amelia Breeden, whose daughter attends Dulles High School, said she believes the change would be detrimental to non-academy high school students, who may not be able to rank in the top 10% if compared to academy students.
“Right now hundreds of students are navigating college tours, applications, scholarship applications, all based on their current rankings established at the start of the school year,” Breeden said. “To challenge that ranking mid-year is reckless and disrespectful.”
However, Jamal Hassan, a junior at the medical science academy at Hightower High School, said he believes the policy is in need of a reform and that it’s most equitable to have his performance be compared to peers at the high school.
Similarly, Ridge Point High School junior Gage Fagen urged the board to make the change quickly.
“Why delay an equitable ranking system simply because it would put those who are currently benefiting from the imperfect system back on a level playing field?" he said. "We understand the argument that students zoned to academies would be harmed, but what you must recognize is that this change would rank more representative of the student within their environment.”
Looking ahead
To ease current high school students into the policy reversal, FBISD trustees also voted to waive the rule requiring students to have four consecutive semesters at a high school preceding graduation there. This will allow current sophomores, juniors and seniors at academies—aside from the valedictorian and salutatorian—to transfer to schools within their attendance boundary without affecting their ranking, district officials said.
Additionally, the revised policy states the superintendent will develop a system to verify a student’s residency if they’re included in the top 10%.
