Grand Prairie ISD rezoning plans make some uncomfortable

by Kirk Dickey of Grand Prairie TODAY

Rezoning and renovation plans that Grand Prairie Independent School District officials say could save millions of dollars continue to rub some residents the wrong way.

Dozens showed up for the second in a series of three meetings about proposed school rezoning moves, April 7 at Fannin Elementary. The third and final meeting before the changes are presented to the school board, is April 21 at Bonham Elementary, one of the schools directly affected by the changes.

The plan is not a simple realignment of school zones. And at its center is the closing of one of the district's older campuses.

Facilities Director Kit Mason told the crowd that Houston Elementary has outlived its useful life as a school. The district had looked at spending millions to upgrade the school and would still have “an old upgraded building.” The district determined that closing the building, with students and teachers going to other campuses, would save $1 million annually.

However, in considering that move, the district determined other elementaries did not have the capacity to absorb the students from a closed Houston.

Mason said the district looked at changing Lee Middle School to an elementary. And that necessitated another middle school to take Lee's place.

Under the proposed plan, Fannin would be converted into a middle school. That would serve two purposes. First, it would allow the district to place a middle school in an area of town that does not currently have one. And secondly, the move would allow the district to build a lighted football field and competition track at the Fannin site. Voters had approved a field at Lee, but that site does not have room for one.

“We thought we could do the community a great justice by providing a middle school in this part of town,” Mason said.

Superintendent Susan Simpson explained that Fannin Middle School would also benefit in other ways, including the construction of a competition next to its current practice gym, YMCA family wellness programs and other amenities. Students would be able to stay for after school programs because the school would be closer to their neighborhood and could walk home rather than being transported by bus. Simpson also said she would like the school to have the district's first middle school soccer program, which could play with the nearby Irving schools.

Fannin Middle School would hold 750 students, although the district is only calculating 500 students in its first year.

“It won't be an elementary with middle school kids in it,” Simpson said. “It will be a middle school the community can be proud of and a facility the community will have access to.”

The changes would mean fewer bus routes and an accompanying savings of about $1.3 million.

Other changes being proposed include putting a Early Childhood Education program at the current Lamar AEP facility and moving the district's AEP program for students with disciplinary issues to the current Bonham Elementary. Mason said that move would save about $300,000.

Also considered, but for non-fiscal reasons, is changing Crockett Elementary to a fifth grade center, which district officials believe will serve students better at an important time in their educational life. The district is considering some single-gender classes in the school.

The only schools not affected, either through student redistribution or physical changes are: Dickinson, Garner, Milam, Moseley and Powell elementaries, and Jackson, Reagan and Truman middle schools.

If approved, the plan will be instituted in the 2010-11 school year. Transfers will be made on a case-by-case basis, with preference toward hardship cases.

The district will save millions of dollars because of the changes, Simpson said. Those savings result largely from closing of Houston Elementary and redistributing students throughout the district. That means fewer empty seats in each school, making for a leaner economic profile and fewer duplications in supplies, energy needs and staff.

“If we can reduce the number of schools, we can still maintain our teachers,” Simpson said, explaining that 83 percent of the district budget goes to personnel and cuts need to be made in other areas so there is no loss in educational quality. “We can still keep our fine arts programs. We can still keep our career and technology programs. We can still keep our support personnel, our literacy strategists and our learning team coaches.”

When it comes down to brass tacks, Simpson said, that is the choice the district has to make - to make these types of changes and retain the staff or to keep the schools as they are and lose teachers.

“We can't have it both ways,” Simpson said.

Still, parents and community members have questions about the plan, specifically how it would affect their children and their neighborhoods.

The idea of moving the DAEP facility to Bonham raised questions about the students who would go to the school. Simpson reassured the crowd that students who go to DAEP are not criminals. Some have exhibited behavior problems, but most are just normal students who made a mistake and are working toward going back to their home campuses.

One crowd member suggested that the school district look at other sites in the district to house DAEP and using Bonham for the Early Childhood Education program. Simpson said that might be possible. It would depend on finding another building that could house the DAEP program.

“That's one of the things we started thinking about very strongly after the Austin meeting,” Simpson said. “We may have the opportunity for some additional facilities that would do that.”

Some questioned how the district planned to pay for the changes. Simpson said that bond funds would take care of the bulk of the renovations.

Some audience members raised concerns about making Crockett a fifth grade center, saying that students hormones begin to run amuck about that age. They were not sure keeping them all together like that was a good idea. Others said the idea of a fifth grade center was untested.

Simpson and the school's principal Suzy Meyer told the crowd that other similar programs have had good results in shaping students in a difficult phase of their lives. In fact, it is because all of the students are at the same period in their lives that the fifth grade center makes sense, Simpson said. It means that programs can be targeted specifically for them without having to worry about younger children's needs.

Some crowd members noted that Fannin was a recognized campus for the last two years and worried that changing things up would only cause problems.

Simpson said schools are not just buildings. Schools are about the personnel in that building. By saving the teachers, the students should still flourish.

“It isn't that Bonham has not been successful,” she said. “That's never been our concern. It's that we have three campuses close together with lots of empty chairs and it is costing us money.”

The school district has more information about the proposed zoning changes and frequently asked questions on its website, www.gpisd.org.