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Rezoning committee hears from residents
By Chris Roark, croark@starlocalnews.com
A cafeteria full of residents expressed their concerns Wednesday night about two proposed boundary changes that would impact schools in the Flower Mound High School feeder pattern.
Lewisville ISD created a committee last year to look at rezoning elementary schools and three middle schools to help address the overcrowding at McKamy and Shadow Ridge middle schools and to make use of under-utilized space at Forestwood Middle School. The plans were also aimed to help overcrowding at some elementary schools.
The committee was made up of parents from each of the impacted schools. Work began in October, and the two final proposals were finalized in late January.
Parents from Wednesday's meeting would prefer no action.
For a look at the boundary proposals, go to www.lisd.net.
The proposals
The overwhelming feeling from Wednesday's meeting was parents don't like the impact they said rezoning would do to several schools and/or neighborhoods.
Both proposals call for portions of Liberty and Wellington elementary schools to be rezoned for Old Settlers Elementary School. Part of Old Settlers would be rezoned for Donald Elementary School. In Proposal 1, about 96 students at Vickery Elementary who are zoned for Forestwood would attend Forest Vista Elementary.
Currently, Old Settlers' zone is split between Shadow Ridge and McKamy. Proposal 1 calls for all students from Old Settlers to go to McKamy. All of the Wellington students would attend Forestwood. Currently, McKamy takes all of Wellington.
In Proposal 2, Garden Ridge Elementary students would attend Forestwood. Forestwood's zone would also stretch west of FM 2499 to Old Settlers Road and take the students that was a result of Donald's expansion.
To many parents, both options mean the end of their children walking to school. Instead, they would have to take a bus to their new school located further away.
Carley Wood, for example, would be sending her child from Old Settlers to Donald if either proposal is approved. Children who live in the Bella Lago neighborhood would then be attending Old Settlers.
"I live 0.25 miles from the school," Wood said. "I am proximity. My child should not be bussed to Donald. Children from Bella Lago would be taking our spot."
Parent Tamiko Ryan said many people bought their homes because of the close proximity to their schools.
Some parents said the proposals would require more bussing routes, thus increasing transportation costs. But Tommy Ellington, executive director of student services, said any additional bus routes would be negated by the removal of other bus routes with the rezoning.
Committee member Mark Tietjen said the group won't make any decisions on its recommendation until after Tuesday's meeting. "We'll discuss what we should present to the board," Tietjen said. "Whether it's these two options, or whether we decide that we need more time, it won't be until after the second meeting."
But he said Wednesday's meeting gave the committee points to think about when members reconvene.
"We didn't spend a lot of time talking about bussing," Tietjen said. "We talked about it toward the end, but we'll probably look at that again. Proximity was also a concern from the residents, so we'll look at that again as well."
Problems with the process
Parents also disapproved of the committee itself. Several residents claimed that committee members were not equipped to make recommendations and that experts should have been brought in.
"[The maps] were not drafted by experts with all the right data or with good analysis at hand," said resident Mike Brown, who represented a group called Rethink Rezone. "But rather by a group of good committee members who were forced to play a rough game of politics. Thus, coalitions formed, and everyone naturally maneuvered to protect their own area from being rezoned."
Resident Joy Bowen said conversations with key officials, such as the police department, didn't take place, which she said could put children in harm's way when it comes to crossing busy intersections.
Residents also said the committee wasn't provided the information they needed to do a good job, a claim multiple committee members denied. One committee member, however, agreed that there was a lack of information provided by the district.
Dr. Stephen Waddell, LISD superintendent, and Dr. Kevin Rogers, chief operating officer, defended the committee, saying it added a level of community involvement LISD hadn't previously had for rezoning issues.
"When you include people in the decision-making process, it's the best way you can go about something," Waddell said.
Questioning the need
Parents argued that the numbers don't justify the need to rezone the schools. While numbers provided by LISD from a demographic study indicate overcrowding at McKamy in the 2015-16 school year (1,015 students with a campus functional capacity of 920 students) and Shadow Ridge (753, 640), parents said they have seen projections that show a declining enrollment in the two schools.
"There are no numbers that justify any impact to McKamy feeder schools," Bowen said. "After our seventh graders leave, we will drop back down to 88 percent."
Forestwood, on the other hand, shows an enrollment of 559 students in 2015-16 with a functional capacity of 1,000. Bowen and others suggested zoning students in new developments to schools with more capacity. Rogers said that and other ideas are still being considered.
Waddell began the meeting by addressing why the proposals are coming forward now. He said Forestwood's low capacity and overcrowding at the two middle schools, as well as the recent approval of the Lakeside DFW mixed-use development in southern Flower Mound, were two of the driving forces.
Lakeside DFW is expected to bring in 2,200 residential units at build-out, including 250 single-family homes. Some of them are expected to be age restricted.
"Lakeside DFW accelerated when we did this, but it wasn't the cause of it," Waddell said. "What caused it was the enrollment of students and the capacity we have."
Some parents disputed information the committee received on the number of students Lakeside DFW is expected to generate, saying the actual numbers will likely be lower.
Town involvement
Though the Flower Mound Town Council has no direct say as to how the district handles the rezoning matter, the council is urging LISD through a resolution to re-examine the situation by creating a new committee with an outside facilitator, that the committee have a broader scope and more.
On Aug. 12, Flower Mound Mayor Tom Hayden sent an email to LISD Board President Carol Kyer and Board Member Kathy Duke asking to have a discussion about the overcrowding at McKamy. The email stated that the overcrowding is impacting the town's growth.
Kyer said Hayden's attempt to involve the town in the situation has made him the middle man, which she said makes people think they can't talk to the district.
Council members, however, have said the issue impacts many residents, and they want to use their resources to help.
Others have said that a recent council vote has also played a role in the rezoning issue. In December, the council amended the "schools" component of the SMARTGrowth program, which is a set of guidelines to ensure proper infrastructure is in place to handle future growth. Instead of denying a development because the impacted school would not have the capacity to handle the incoming homes, the town will formally communicate with area school districts about future projects. But a project won't be denied because of school capacity issues. Town attorney said denying a project would put the town on shaky legal ground since a school district can't control development.
Parents have questioned if the rezoning is taking place because of that.
"It just seems ironic," Bowen said. "I think the district is forced to shuffle around because the 'schools' component of SMARTGrowth was removed."
Hayden denied that SMARTGrowth was amended to force rezoning.
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