SAN MARCOS CISD
The San Marcos School Board received a demographics presentation from their communications team which outlined possible rezoning boundaries for SMCISD’s seven elementary schools. The proposed boundary changes would only affect elementary schools at the time of the presentation. Determining factors that went into the rezoning included the size of the elementary school, transportation efficiency and campus capacity. Other considerations for rezoning involve the new Mendez elementary, which is currently being rebuilt. There are seven proposed changes which would affect each of the seven elementary schools.
- Crockett Elementary would receive 97 students from Hernandez Elementary with boundary moving from Wonder World Drive to HWY 82.
- Mendez Elementary would receive 61 students from Rodriguez Elementary with the boundary moving from Cottonwood Parkway to Wonder World Drive.
- Hernandez Elementary would receive 56 students from Rodriguez with the boundary moving from the area east of Hunter Road from Posey Road to just north of The Grand at Stonecreek apartments.
- Bowie Elementary would receive 12 students from Rodriguez with the boundary moving from the area between Beback Inn Road and Birmensdorf Drive - Bowie would also receive 26 students from De Zavala Elementary with the boundary moving on Mallard Loop and Pintail Loop.
- De Zavala would gain a student with the proposed boundary moving east to FM 621.
- Travis Elementary would receive 69 students from De Zavala with the new Travis boundary expanding into the area east of SH 21, north of SH 80 and over to SH 142.
These proposed changes would balance the amount of students at each school. If the current boundaries stayed the same the estimated attendance for Travis elementary would be 383 students. With the new boundary changes that would increase their attendance to 450, of 87% capacity. For Rodriguez Elementary this would help control capacity. The school’s max attendance is 660 and with current boundaries their estimated attendance would be 616. Rezoning would bring the attendance down to 501.
“If we can alleviate some of that pressure by bringing students to the surrounding campuses, now is the time to do it because growth is going to happen within the next three years,” Chief of Communications & Technology Andrew Fernandez said. ”There’s a better balance across each elementary.”
The rollout timeline would last throughout late February, with a community feedback survey being sent out from Dec. 19 to Jan. 5, followed by community meetings that would be held at the central office on Jan. 6 and Jan. 13 at 5:30 p.m. A final board vote would be on Jan. 20. And if approved, the transfer window would open on Jan. 21 and close on Feb. 18. Staff would meet with principals on Feb. 20 to approve or deny transfers, and by Feb. 23 the Human Resources and Finance departments would have final enrollment numbers so they could adjust staffing.
The school board asked questions surrounding the transfer process, with Jessica Cain questioning the agency of older elementary school students having an option to not transfer for their last year of elementary school. Fernandez said that students going into 5th grade would have the option to transfer or stay at their current school if they live within the boundary changes, although they would have to provide their own transportation to the school they stay at if that school is outside their boundary lines.
These boundary changes would affect dual language students with Bowie elementary school phasing out of the dual language program. Students in the program at Mendez would be transferred to De Zavala. Three elementary campuses would still offer the dual language program.
“The goal is to increase and even out the number of students at each of those campuses,” Director of Bilingual Education Monica M. Valdez, Ph. D. said.
