Boundary Break-Down District proposes need for border changes

Levi Walters | Reporter

Given an imbalance of enrollment across schools within the district, with some schools seeing under enrollment and others being overcrowded, the school board is discussing potential remedies. The board has put forth two high school plans to change the borders and redistribute students effectively. This includes moving students from existing schools into other schools or re-purposing schools all together, but in both of the hypothetical plans, enrollment in Hendrickson will not decrease substantially.

“Students impacted by boundary adjustments are rezoned to attend their new school based on the new proposed boundary,” Assistant superintendent Brandy Baker said.

The main reason for these changes is the overcrowding currently affecting Weiss High School, which is expected to exceed capacity by 2024. Another is the severely lacking enrollment, especially in the southwestern portion of the district. If nothing is done about these issues, schools in the southwest will continue to operate with their numbers well below capacity; another bond would need to be proposed and accepted for a new campus, and resources for the district, staff, and other utilities will be stretched thin. To counteract these issues, two plans are thought of effecting the high schools.

“There are several differences between the plans,” Baker said. “Plan one moves students from Weiss High School into Pflugerville High School, while plan two does not. Plan two moves more students from WHS to Hendrickson and as a result, moving more students from Hendrickson to PHS.”

On Monday, January 9th, the public forum meeting, open to the parents and children of all schools affected, was filled with vocal criticism of the board and the people proposing the changes. One of the repeated concerns was the option of grandfathering (the act of people, even if they are outside of the new border, being exempt from moving schools due to circumstances like extracurriculars, and being upperclassman) and why it wasn’t being offered as an option.

“Grandfathering always helps ease the transition,” Principal Michael Grebb said.

The board says that as of now, there are no thoughts of grandfathering considering the plans are still in early stages of development and it is unknown if any of the plans are to be approved at all. But if some version of plan one or two is approved (based almost entirely on community feedback) the committee will evaluate the impact of grandfathering and transfers as they apply, but as of now they are not a priority. Another issue that was raised was the talk of the weight this will take on students who are affected by the changes, and the immense amount of anxiety it could cause on the basis of extracurriculars, friends, family, and support.

“Anytime you move boundaries in a school district, it’s difficult, and people are passionate about it,” Grebb said “That’s all I know. It’s hard, but it’ll all work itself out.”