Friday, February 8, 2008

McKinney ISD proposes redrawing of school zones

By Rodney Williams of McKinneyNews.net

MCKINNEY — The McKinney Independent School District released its preliminary recommendations for a redistribution plan for middle school students on Thursday. The addition of Cockrill Middle School - the district's fifth middle school which is expected to open for the 2008-09 school year - means a re-shuffling of certain school zones.

This isn't the first time the district has had to re-draw lines for a new middle school. The last such school to open was Evans and several groups arose in protest when it was announced their elementary school's student population would be broken up to attend different middle schools.

McKinney resident Michelle Robinson expected to be one of the groups which voiced its concerns this time around. Robinson lives in the Falcon Creek subdivision on the city's west side and her children attend Eddins Elementary, a school which saw its outgoing student body split between middle schools with the opening of Evans.

This time, however, Robinson has few worries.

"We're very glad that they kept us together," said Robinson, who has two girls at Eddins, one in fifth grade and one in second. "We had heard rumors that they were going to split us up again."

Robinson said the concern was such that there was a generated form letter requiring parent signatures going around asking the school board to keep the school's students together when they made the transition to middle school. In the district's preliminary plan, at least, few student bodies are truly effected. A portion of Malvern Elementary students will move from Evans to Cockrill, and a portion of Burks Elementary students will move from Faubion to Johnson.

According to a press release from MISD, criteria used to formulate the preliminary lines involved providing relief for campuses that have outgrown their capacity, maximizing the utilization of the campuses, extending the time as far as possible before future redistribution of middle school students will need to occur, minimizing the split feeder pattern from elementary school to middle school, providing diversity at all of the middle school campuses and increasing the geographical proximity to a closely located middle school.

The release goes on to state that the school district realizes "not all of these criteria can be met in every scenario and some compromise must take place when looking at these considerations." In that vein, MISD will hold two public meetings; the first at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11 in the Faubion Middle School auditorium and the second at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13 in the Dowell Middle School cafeteria, soliciting public input on the proposed plan.

Following the public meetings, officials will discuss the proposed recommendation with the McKinney ISD Board of Trustees once again. The district's goal is to have the Board vote on the final recommendation at the Feb. 25 regular Board meeting.

Those public forums could address fears parents - such as Robinson - may harbor concerning the process.

"The one thing that I'm worried about is that they made these decisions before the public hearings," Robinson said.

The district will listen to parents concerns regarding the redistribution and is expected to lay out the positive points of the new plan. According to the MISD release, the major positive points of the recommended plan are:

- An increase in geographical proximity to the middle schools

- All five middle schools have diversity

- It allows for continued growth at Scott Johnson Middle School (the area that will most likely face the greatest growth in the near future)

- If growth projections remain as accurate as they have in the past, there will not need to be any additional redistribution of middle schools for the next 5 years

- Faubion, Evans, Dowell and Scott Johnson all receive some relief

MISD is welcoming input from district families. To voice an opinion, e-mail either the McKinney ISD Board of Trustees at MISDteamof8@mckinneyisd.net or individuals in the administrative offices with your comments.

Specific Changes to Current Middle School Attendance Zones

Based on the recommendation and associated map of the student redistribution plan, the following changes are under consideration from the current middle school zones:

- All of Eddins Elementary moves from Scott Johnson MS to Dowell MS

- All of Wilmeth Elementary moves from Scott Johnson MS to Cockrill MS

- All of Minshew Elementary south of Hwy. 380 moves from Scott Johnson to Cockrill MS

- All of Slaughter Elementary moves from Dowell to Cockrill

- In order to provide relief for Evans, a portion of Malvern Elementary will move from Evans to Cockrill MS

- The portion of Burks Elementary that is north of Hwy. 380 moves from Faubion MS to Scott Johnson MS

The proposed student redistribution plan can be viewed in its entirety on the McKinney ISD website at www.mckinneyisd.net.

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Related stories

• Proposed McKinney ISD rezoning sparks debate (Feb. 14, 2008)

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• McKinney ISD