This vote comes with the anticipation of opening a new middle school and elementary school, which were funded through a bond approved by voters in 2022.
What’s happening?
According to the agenda of the Dec. 19 meeting, the following recommendations are being made for the attendance zones:
- Rolling Meadows: Entire Retama Springs subdivision at Kentucky Ridge to include a smaller subdivision south of Retama Springs at Lookout Road near Creekside Hill rezoned to Selma Elementary.
- Coronado Village: Relocate all administration, staff and students to Selma Elementary. Dual language program also would be moved to the new elementary school.
- Wortham Oaks: Sunset the Spanish Immersion Program after all the currently enrolled students complete the program.
- Copperfield: A portion rezoned to Converse Elementary would include 95 students in a triangular area including South Seguin Road, North Seguin Road/Kneupper Road and FM 78.
- Escondido: A portion rezoned to Elolf would include 245 students located south of Walzem Road to include the Norte 8833 Apartments and Liberte Preserve and Liberte Creek subdivisions.
Alongside these changes, JSTEM would be relocated to Kitty Hawk Middle. Under the new feeder patterns, each high school within the district would have two schools flowing into them composed of:
- Wagner High School fed by Kirby Middle and Metzger Middle
- Judson High School fed by Judson Middle and Woodlake Hills Middle
- Veterans Memorial High School fed by Cibolo Creek Middle and Kitty Hawk Middle
What they’re saying
On Dec. 11, the board of trustees held a workshop to discuss changes to attendance zones and feeder patterns.
District staff said the recommendations were formed based on housing reports, potential legislation and the number of communities being developed in the district forecasted over the next 10 years.
Assistant Superintendent of Operations Daniel Brooks said the goal of the recommendations and Growth and Planning Committee was to find balance in the enrollment numbers.
“We wanted to make sure that we were able to, as best as we could, even out those numbers,” Brooks said.
Superintendent Milton “Rob” Fields III said staff tried to come up with new zones that would have as minimal of an impact as possible on the community.
“We knew that whatever recommendations came forward, there would be an inconvenience for a certain group of the population,” Fields said. “We tried to minimize that as much as we could.”
One of the groups being impacted by these changes is the student body attending JSTEM. All of the JSTEM staff, students, counselors and administration are slated to move from Judson Middle to Kitty Hawk Middle.
Trustee Laura Stanford asked if it was possible to keep upcoming eighth grade students at JSTEM while transferring sixth and seventh graders.
Fields said the transportation department was not confident that they would have enough drivers to accommodate the extra trips to bring students from around the district to JSTEM.
Another discussion topic for the board of trustees was the relocation of students, faculty and staff at Coronado Village Elementary.
Under the proposed plan, the facility would no longer serve as an elementary school, and students from that school would be moved to Selma Elementary.
Fields said the facility will not sit vacant or be sold because the district has until the start of the next school year to determine a use for the building.
Moving forward
The board of trustees are scheduled to take action on the attendance changes during the Dec. 19 meeting. Should changes be approved, they will be effective starting in the 2025-26 school year.
Interactive maps have been uploaded to the district website, allowing the community to see any proposed changes to the attendance zones.
