FBISD CONSIDERS REZONING NEW TERRITORY SCHOOLS

A newly proposed middle school rezoning plan by the school district’s contracted demographer shows Telfair zoned to Sartartia Middle School instead of First Colony Middle School. This second plan emerged in a January 8 rezoning workshop. Board members had expressed concerns with a previously proposed plan to send Telfair children to First Colony Middle School because the commute would involve crossing US 59. That first plan also showed subdivisions off FM 1464 (Chelsea Harbour, Orchard Lakes, and Stratford Park) re-zoned from Garcia Middle School to Sartartia Middle School. In the second proposal, those neighborhoods would stay at Garcia. Absorbing Telfair into their zones would have a fairly equal impact on either Sartartia or First Colony Middle Schools as both campuses have about the same current enrollment and are built with similar capacities. Telfair is projected to have approximately 3000 homes when fully built-out in an estimated six years, and Demographer Dr. Dennis Harner is showing a resulting attendance increase of about 330 students for either Sartartia or First Colony Middle Schools by 2011. FBISD’s Associate Superintendent of Facilities and Planning, Lee Petros, speculates that another middle school may be needed in the central part of the district to accommodate projected growth. The two proposed sites for new middle schools in a 2008 bond referendum are in the east and west portions of the district. Middle School #13 just north of Travis High School will open in Fall, 2007 but will soon need relief if residential growth in surrounding developments continues to explode. In other rezoning proposal changes, a revised attendance projection for Brazos Bend Elementary School shows minimal relief of overcrowding there, even by rezoning Watermill, Greystone Place, Tessa Lakes, and Easton Lakes to Walker Station Elementary. These four subdivisions, currently zoned to Brazos Bend, have a large number of children attending Walker Station through intradistrict transfers and therefore rezoning them to Walker Station may reduce Brazos Bend’s attendance by as little as 25 students. Petros said the board will review zoning for these two schools at the January 22 meeting. “We’ll have to decide if is feasible to have 900 students or more at Brazos Bend for the next several years,” said Petros. Walker Station’s attendance is projected to decline in coming years as the neighborhood “greys” and produces fewer elementary school age children, said Harner. The board may consider other, new zoning proposals at their next workshop. They are expected to adopt a new, district-wide rezoning plan by February 26. A public meeting is scheduled for February 22 at Austin High School.