Rezoning Might Affect Our Kids - What Do You All Think...

[M.D. Holloway]

Our school district is planning on rezoning our elementary school for a different middle school. There are 2 options on the table. One of them is to have Copper Canyon (a small town) go to Downing for middle school, the other is to have Copper Canyon, Rolling Hills Estates (our hood), and Chin Chapel subdivisions also go to Downing. Essentially, Heritage is being split up for middle school. The school district is having a public hearing regarding rezoning Rolling Hills, Chapel Hills, and Copper Canyon to go to Downing Middle School in Flower Mound starting next year.

The other middle school Briarhill) is much bigger, Downing is smaller - both are part of the same school district and have excellent educators. The sports at Briarhill are far better than Downing.

This affects our Son - if he has to go to Downing, he will know a bunch of kids already. If he stays with Briarhill he will know many more. Both schools will feed into Marcus HS. I figure if he does end up going to Downing by the time he goes to HS he will know a bunch of kids.

Not sure which way to go here.

I wanted to get everyone's thoughts on the proposed Briarhill rezoning. I know many people are (or will be once they learn about it) very upset about it and if you are like me, you probably moved here knowing that your kids were zoned for great schools in Highland Village. I don't have a lot of emails for our neighborhood and was wondering if you all could email those that you may have about this. I think that many people do not know about it. The lower grades did not get letters, only the 5th graders.

If you have not heard, the school board is talking about taking our neighborhood, Rolling Hills and Chapel Hills and moving those kids to Downing Middle School starting next year. Copper Canyon and Double Oak would also be affected (click on the link above).

With the hearing coming up in February 2nd (6:00pm @ Briarhill), we need to let the school board know that we are not in favor of sending our children to another school--separated from their friends that they have gone to school with since kindergarten. I think it would be most effective to email your neighbors who are affected and let people know about it (even if they have young kids not in school, they will be affected by this later).

You can also help by sending emails and letters to the school board and attending the school board meeting. You can find more information about this by clicking on the link above.

The author of the above letter is on the Town Council - he is also running for Mayor in a year.


the other side of the coin...

While I have a son who currently attends Briarhill, my daughter attended Downing. It is a great school. Both schools have equal levels of expectations for their students. You can see evidence of this if you look at their state ratings.

As for moving here to have our kids go to Highland Village Schools. The schools in Flower Mound are equally as good. The middle schools in question both feed into the same High School. Downing has great sports and band programs. The kids mesh well with the others when they feed into Marcus.

I personally think the idea is a good one as it will help with evening out the enrollment. Downing currently has only 2 elementary schools that feed into it. If you look at the enrollment on each schools website (I know that it is not necessarily current but it offers an idea) Briarhill is listed as having 1009 students while Downing has 652. One middle school should not be overcrowded when another one, that is close by, has room.

The kids from our neighborhood ride a bus to school anyway so it is not a matter of "they can no longer walk to school". Downing is 5 minutes away from our neighborhood. I drive past it everyday on the way to work. The traffic by Downing is nothing like that at Briarhill. The school is in a safe secure neighborhood (not near a busy road like 407).

2499 seems to be a natural break for the zones. Many of us did not expect to have a Wal-Mart in our backyards but I would bet that we frequent it on a regular basis. If a change has to be made, Middle school is a great time to do it. The kids are mixed together with many they have never met before anyway. Besides, they will be going with their neighbors to the new school.

If you read the information about the change it states that current 7th graders, and their siblings already in Briarhill, would be given the opportunity to stay at Briarhill. I also think that is a fair prospect.

As a teacher, as well as a parent, I can tell you that the kids will adjust much more easily than the adults will. I can also say that the kids will have a better attitude about the change if we all approach it in a positive manner.

We are trading one great school for another great school that has more elbow room for our kids.

Seems like a win-win situation to me.

Our kids can adjust either way. My wife and I don't know how we feel. Both sides have decent arguments.

What do you all think?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Good school vs good school, is it really a big problem? Were they wanting to bus kids to the ghetto it would be a problem. I'm sure there's an adjustment for some kids, but that is inevitable in middle and high school.

[red-beard]

Bigger means a better chance at gifted programs and better sports programs. UMMV.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Good school vs good school, is it really a big problem?

+1 Be thankful.

Big vs large - pluses and minuses to each. Sports and middle school is kind of a non-issue imho. They likely are playing outside of school. Big can have more opportunities, but kids can get lost in the shuffle and feel overwhelmed. No perfect setting/size.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by nostatic

...Sports and middle school is kind of a non-issue....

We are in TX.

If you don't have an agent by 6th grade your washed up.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

We are in TX.

Yeah, I thought about that after I wrote that. Strike that comment...I forgot that school sports are a full-contact religion that starts in kindergarten in TX

[911boost]

Lube, I sent a link of this to my wife. Zoning is one of her primary job duties for the local school district. I will see what she says.

Bill

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by BSiple

I will what she says.

I'm not sure if that mean's your whipped or you're a wizard or something...

[911boost]

Hahaha, thats what I get for not paying 100% attention to what I am typing (my mind is wandering back to the bukake and teabagging threads).

Thank you for pointing that out Todd.

On a side note, I do tend to spend a lot of time dressed like this:

[M.D. Holloway]

BSiple - any word from your wife?

[lowyder993s]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

We are in TX.

If you don't have an agent by 6th grade your washed up.

HAHAHA...my buddy is a Cali tranplant in Tx...has his 12 yr old son in top secret camps w/ Rice baseball coaches. Soo true what you say!

[mattdavis11]

Having seen some of what has exploded in your area (a dot on the map 15 years ago), the farther from the Walmart, the better. Take a close look at the farm land which is yet to be bought and factor in the apartments which are going to pop up left and right. Those are going to be the kinds that your son will have contact with, or not, depending on what develops. FMM might not be what it is come 7 years, it damn sure isn't what it was. I think the closer to Double Oak or Bartonville, the better, but it's been 6 months since I traveled through. Max probably isn't the one that will be affected, it'll be your young daughter.

Urban sprawl, with it comes the **** too. Something is always behind the curtain and when it comes to several towns with one school district, it gets intimidating. I can't imagine being in your position.

BTW, how's the 35 expansion/ NTTA take over to toll lanes stalling?

[M.D. Holloway]

Matt, we are right across from the Wal-Mart and the AMC in HV - the town is developed out and apartments are not allowed (zoning regs). Check out the 22 high end macmansions going in at the end of our street. 5000 sq ft ave, 750K to 1.5M. Not that there are less issue with thoses leveraged. The next town over is Flower Mound has some apartments but they are more high end (think Las Colinas). There is some Condos going up in Flower Mound but I don't think the Urban Sprawl will hit there.

Last year in Highland Village our demographic was 96% anglo, ave income 150K, 91% in town are families, 89% single income.

[M.D. Holloway]

Went to a grassroots meeting tonight about the re-zoning issue. When it comes down to it, we really don't care where our kids go. I went to the meeting to understand what was up.
Being the community zealot that I am, and hearing a bunch of emotional residents, I decided to help organize their efforts during the meeting.

First of all, basing an argument on anything emotional won't work if you are going up against the school board or any group. You have to use logic and empirical data. Also, the board is made up of elected folks which makes it really fun.

Now it has been my experience in life that anyone in politics bases their work on four things:
1) Profit
2) Ego
3) Re-Election
4) Mis-information

I am not sure that anyone on the board will profit directly - still a possibility. Ego is a possibility but really not such a reason here - other than that they may 'think' they are doing something worthwhile. As for re-election is concerned, seems like more folks are against this than for it - that data could prove helpful. So that leave mis-information.

Come to find out the numbers that the board are going from are 3 years old and basically wrong. Of course there were plenty of folks expressing outrage based on emotions. All well and good but the school board isn't really going to move on that point.

The thing that gets me is that decisions are made on bad data. Thats the thing that gets me. What other decisions have been made on bad data?

I think that will be my next book - falls in line with the whole failure thing...