Cy-Fair ISD approves rezoning plan

Cy-Fair ISD approves rezoning plan

By Kimberly Stauffer Wednesday, 20 January 2010

HOUSTON — Cypress-Fairbanks ISD’s controversial attendance rezoning was resolved at a recent board meeting with the school board voting to approve Option 5B.

The board voted 5-2 in favor of the option with board members Larry Youngblood and William Morris dissenting.

The plan leaves the Westgate community at Copeland Elementary, the closest school to the subdivision, and allows Birkes Backyard students to continue attending Birkes Elementary. The approved plan saves the district money, postponing the construction of a new elementary school and giving Cy-Fair ISD time to address lacking school funding with the state Legislature. Parents criticized the option for forcing students to attend a school miles from their home and increasing attendance at affected elementary schools.

Board member Youngblood said while Option 5B is better than competing rezoning Option 4B, “I think it does a lot of other things poorly.”

The goal of rezoning attendance boundaries was to decrease the student population at overcrowded schools and reduce travel, said Superintendent David Anthony. The reduction is less than anticipated, he said, but the district cannot afford to open new schools for the 2010-11 school year.

Parents have attended meetings for several months to speak about keeping their children in one local school and entire neighborhoods on the same middle school and high school tracks to avoid splitting up classes.

John Ogletree, president of the school board, said the rezoning options have “evolved from many facets of our community…everyone cannot get what they would like.”