Some on here have mentioned that the School Board is elected by us, and therefore works for us. I disagree... The school board works for the students, in their best interests specifically. While I appreciate the fact that they are unpaid leaders, that does not hold true to the CSISD administration.

Through repeated re-zoning through the years the school board has repeatedly made their numbers problems become the students problems. So the students suffer the repercussions of the board's and administration's failures.

So here we are again, faced with this sudden "emergency" to re-balance our numbers again, and again doing so blindly without proper regard for what lies in the future.

The board and administration has not asked the community for more money to fix their problems, they just assumed that the community would fail them in that. Yet if they are truly working for the student, it should be their responsibility to address funds at least as much as an emergency re-balance of numbers. So the administration's problems become the student's problem. Was a study conducted to indicate that a bond would fail? Did they even ask?

Why not put a hold on these proceedings until they have a better and much more comprehensive plan? We know the 3rd high school is coming, we know that there will be an addition to CSHS, so why not sit down and plan all this out now. Let's get the developers, community leaders, school administration, city leaders, and county all on the same sheet of music so we can do this right the first time.

It makes very little sense to have Existing students have to change schools based on the need to balance Future growth. That just doesn't make sense. And this plan of "reverse" grandfathering is silly. Current 8th graders have already signed up for classes, toured campuses, attended try outs and selected for dance teams, cheerleaders, sports, band, etc. To leave them high and dry is very unfair to them, and disruptive at least to the very schools that are trying to plan for what will happen this fall. Academically speaking, are the schools fully prepared for this shift of students? So (for example) you balance out your numbers, and suddenly you have no idea how many teachers you need at one school or the other for Pre AP Biology? You aren't accounting for those details, and you are forcing your administrations to react during the summer as best they can, and then when they can't support the new numbers, the student gets hit again with the fact that they weren't registered there in time, so won't get the class they should. Additionally, you state that no current HS student will be rezoned? What about their siblings? What science do you have to predict then what students will show up to which HS this fall if you allow them to have their choice? And how will you adjust your staff for that at the last moment? Just more chaos in August... If you are going to rezone, then at least have the courtesy and respect to the 2018 incoming freshmen to leave them in the school they start. Otherwise you leave parents, student's, and administration in a state of chaos.

Additionally, the cost of busing in the students you want here and there is out of hand, and not even practical by any standard. These costs are coming straight out of your own budget. My own children don't even ride the bus in or out of school because it would be in excess of an hour each way morning and night, yet that service is paid for by our taxpayers. What a waste.... Regardless of the jigsaw outcome of our little emergency re-district project, our current method of transporting kids from only schools they are zoned is obsolete. What we will need is a method of transportation "hubs". Where students can transfer from one bus to another regardless of zone. An example of this would be having the kids all ride the same morning bus to the elementary school, and then have to opportunity to transfer to a second bus that will take them directly to their school from there. So all the kids are getting on the bus much later in the morning, and getting home much earlier, but would allow the older kids to make a transfer along the way. And doing all this with less buses, less miles, and less resources. Parents would also have the option of injecting their older students into the bus system at an elementary school (hub), rather than have to make multiple trips to multiple different schools every morning.

As for the community, they should be in an uproar. What real estate agent in their right mind would want to work trying to sell homes in an environment where they can't tell a buyer what schools their children will attend this fall, or how they might or might not be grandfathered? Additionally, where will those kids be zoned in 2 years when the board (or is it the superintendent parent of a non rezoned, graduating Senior?) freaks out again? This is affecting the very real estate prices that determine our very own school funding!

Our CSISD leadership is afraid of asking the community for funding via what I assume would be a bond. But the board and CSISD administration are putting that very future funding in jeopardy when they are continually changing things, which is a classic sign of inability to manage and plan. The community will be MUCH more unlikely to approve a bond when they have lost faith in the board that directs those funds. The psychology of an election... you power against the parents and students only so long before they rise up and take your power, and in this case it's defeating your next bond... Again, the students will lose!

CSISD Administration, and CSISD School Board, please stop making your problems our students problems. Pause what you are doing until you have a plan that does not continually cause existing students to be rezoned. Communicate that intention WELL prior to it's implementation, and plan accordingly so your schools can be properly sized and ready once and for all. Future students to future schools, existing students to existing schools. Figure it out for the students, because you work for them.

One more thought....

I plan my own personal budget, vacation, travel, work responsibilities, and even my oil changes well beyond August 2018, and yet you are just NOW talking about yanking thousands of community lives into a blender not even 5 months from now?

You should be ashamed of yourselves....

Perhaps the Board should schedule some extra time to evaluate the performance of the CSISD leadership, and talk about some changes...

That is the best opinion that I've seen about this whole mess.

Rezoning is not free when you take into account the added transportation costs of buses taking kids from the south end of the district to Consolidated.

Vulcan said:

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You should be ashamed of yourselves....

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Great logic! That all makes perfect sense. Unfortunately your thoughts don't address the real problem. Money and numbers are the excuse. The cause of all of this is the NEED for absolute equality and even demographics. That is what is driving everything. They could do everything in your plan, have an unlimited budget, and it wouldn't change a thing. They would still be shipping bodies back and forth to meet their ultimate agenda. The last thing they would want to do is fix their excuse. It would make justifying their real intentions much harder. If numbers were truly the problem, they could simply let the kids that live near consol go to school there and poof problem solved. Until we fix the real problem, this will only get worse as we grow.

CS78 said:

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Vulcan said:

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You should be ashamed of yourselves....

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Great logic! That all makes perfect sense. Unfortunately your thoughts don't address the real problem. Money and numbers are the excuse. The cause of all of this is the NEED for absolute equality and even demographics. That is what is driving everything. They could do everything in your plan, have an unlimited budget, and it wouldn't change a thing. They would still be shipping bodies back and forth to meet their ultimate agenda. The last thing they would want to do is fix their excuse. It would make justifying their real intentions much harder. If numbers were truly the problem, they could simply let the kids that live near consol go to school there and poof problem solved. Until we fix the real problem, this will only get worse as we grow.

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No one is pressing the Board on WHY they insist on pushing kids back & forth every year to create some demographic utopia? The admin will tell the Board that it improves educational outcomes and produce some studies (that were statistically massaged to get the desired outcome) as proof.

The real reason the admin keep telling the board that this is so vital is that the admin needs to keep the minority and low income students (who tend to do poorly on standardized tests) spread around the district so no one campus gets a poor rating (and the "target groups" don't get the help they need to succeed, which would be more easily accomplished if they attended school near their homes- parental involvement is the single most important indicator of student success). Its a shell game designed to justify the bloated budgets and salaries in the CSISD admin at the cost of the students' needs.

Vulcan said:

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CSISD Administration, and CSISD School Board, please stop making your problems our students problems. Pause what you are doing until you have a plan that does not continually cause existing students to be rezoned. Communicate that intention WELL prior to it's implementation, and plan accordingly so your schools can be properly sized and ready once and for all. Future students to future schools, existing students to existing schools. Figure it out for the students, because you work for them.

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Vulcan,

I request that you send your post to the CSISD School Board and Dr. Ealy ASAP. Maybe to all the media outlets in town (although the news media seems to just report not examine/investigate). You are absolutely right on with this perspective. Thank you!

I feel like your post and the questions around "why the district is pushing kids back and forth" (and where is the data showing their educational improvement rather than just making each campus look good) from Coach Dub are key to truly addressing all this.

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You are so eager to spend money then you go buy the land and donate it.

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I'm willing to pay for my fair share of an increased tax rate to solve a community problem. You should be too. If you don't have kids, then you probably don't care about anything but money.

My primary issue is that there are "FOUR" plans, and in all of them my kid drives PAST one school to attend another.

Option 3 is the "closest" to correct.....with these changes....

https://1.cdn.edl.io/28RaoIUKHAdxq4D4a8B3VSfSSJpkTwhpmbWjC1vCNeIxari0.pdf

1) Push CSHS line over to Hwy 6 between Graham and WDF
2) Everything South of WDF East of Hwy 6 goes to CSHS
3) Stop with the Frankenstein carve out garbage for kids in the north clearly closer to Consol. Everything North of the Graham line goes to AMCHS.

How do the numbers look if we do that ?

I'll wait here for the school board coup where I'm elected supreme leader.

Start looking for land in the south and east parts of town. Further down than you think.

That's my point though, that the CSISD leadership is placing their own numbers problems squarely on the backs of the students. By NOT asking for money, they have done so without due diligence. So a PAUSE on these proceedings should be in effect until they have explored all their options.

Oogway said:

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The benefits were not always measurable, but if it goes back to the way it was before, then the District will be moving backward instead of forward.

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Please elaborate and include more than touchy-feely, "its for the children" opinions.

This district wastes way too much money on things that have, at best, zero effect on the educational success of our kids.

Full disclosure, I don't really have a dog in this fight, as my neighborhood won't change in any of the zoning options.

With that said, I'm not sure what all the concern is. It's not like this is Houston and we're busing kids across a major metropolitan area. We're talking about less than double digit miles in difference. I'm about a mile from one high school, and 4 miles from the other. If there were a major difference in the academic experience, I might feel differently. The fact is there isn't much of a difference between the two high schools academically.

Since so few kids actually walk to school to begin with, someone educate me on what the REAL issue is.

Classroom size is the issue for changing attendance zones.

Booster club money and demographic balance are the issues for how they are going to change the zones.

Referencing the official data from the Texas Education Agency, CSISD had the following percent pass rate on the STAAR Test:
https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/cgi/sas/broker
---------------STAAR ---------------
% AT LEVEL II SATISFACTORY STANDARD
29. African American 56
30. Hispanic 74
31. White 90
32. American Indian 80
33. Asian 95
34. Pacific Islander 100
35. Two or More Races 79
36. Economically Disadvantaged 64

Looking at the African American and Econ Disadvantaged %, I would hope this isn't considered success.

BTW, lowly Bryan ISD, with more than twice the percentage of African American and Economically Disadvantaged students, was within 6% on the pass rate for both demographics, despite spending MUCH less on busing and related rezoning costs.

As was referenced by previous posters, CSISD is NOT pursuing the demographic rezoning to improve the education of our students. It is done so the admin can con the sheeple into believing that CSISD is the best district in the Brazos Valley (that award goes to Mumford), and cheat the state's school evaluation system.

The solution referenced in the old threads of keeping kids near home and investing all the money WASTED on busing and annual rezoning in attracting top teachers to the neighborhood schools populated by the low performing demographics is the one that will actually give these low-performers the best chance at success in college or the workplace. By spreading them out, is CSISD actually revealing its true priorities?

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lost my dog said:

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SARATOGA said:

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Quote:

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You are so eager to spend money then you go buy the land and donate it.

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I'm willing to pay for my fair share of an increased tax rate to solve a community problem. You should be too. If you don't have kids, then you probably don't care about anything but money.

My primary issue is that there are "FOUR" plans, and in all of them my kid drives PAST one school to attend another.

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Serious question - why is it so bad your kid drives past one school to attend another? Both high schools are good. Why does the drive matter?

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Yeah, I've heard that question a lot--somebody says, hey, I don't want my kids to have to go to school on the other side of town, and the reply is, but the schools are excellent! Seems like a non-sequitir response to me, but I guess it's a reasonable question.

Some reasons:

For some of the neighborhoods proposed to move, bus schedules are already challenging. One lady at the forums pointed out that her kid was already on the bus 2 1/4 hours per day. And, that's an improvement over what it was a year ago. That impacts time for homework, ability to get kids to normal after-school activities that aren't located at school on time, time for sleep, time for extracurriculars, family time, etc. Adding anything to that travel time isn't welcome. Because bus routes go to multiple schools (intermediate/middle/high), spreading kids out to schools farther away also means the time added to the bus route could be more than just the difference in drive time from one school to another.

For many of us, it isn't a matter of one kid driving past a school, it's a question of living on one side of town while juggling several kids potentially spread out all the way to the other side of town. In some scenarios the board looked at last time with 5-12 rezoning, that had us with kids at elementary school close by, high school at AMCHS (which is double the travel time roughly compared to CSHS), and intermediate/middle schools way on the other side of town (my neighborhood is about as far from Oakwood as you can get in town; it's also about double the travel time as compared to Pecan Trail). The idea of dealing with after-school activities (and before school, like 6:30 a.m. middle school cross country practice--moving to schools across town would add 20-25 minutes to a round trip to get the kid there...) in that situation with already-challenging bus schedules was unappetizing to say the least. This is not quite as much of an issue when considering just high school rezoning, but it definitely still comes into play.

Finally, traffic is not getting easier to navigate in town. The board has emphasized that we're now a medium-sized district. That's because we're also a medium-sized town, which has led to growing pains on the roads that will also make all of these issues a little more challenging. For example, the normal route for lots of us to AMCHS will soon have an additional light at the new HEB--no added distance, but definitely added time.

So, not just one factor--there are multiple factors at play here. Add them up, and you get a very different picture than just driving a few more minutes past one school to another.

lost my dog said:

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SARATOGA said:

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Quote:

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You are so eager to spend money then you go buy the land and donate it.

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I'm willing to pay for my fair share of an increased tax rate to solve a community problem. You should be too. If you don't have kids, then you probably don't care about anything but money.

My primary issue is that there are "FOUR" plans, and in all of them my kid drives PAST one school to attend another.

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Serious question - why is it so bad your kid drives past one school to attend another? Both high schools are good. Why does the drive matter?

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Forgive the assumption that may be entirely incorrect but you sound like someone who doesn't have children driving. Both of my kids are good drivers and it's still an unnerving experience. My daughter is a sophomore at CSHS and her schedule is absolutely chaotic with extracurricular activities keeping her late 3-4 days per week in addition to studying with friends, etc. She routinely gets home late and leaves early, several days per week. Adding another 10 minutes to each direction doesn't sound like a lot but it's 10 more minutes at the end of a long day for an inexperienced driver. That doesn't even consider that I pay for her gas so she doesn't have to have a job while getting all A's and participating in band, Student Council, doing AVP, etc.

The bottom line is that my daughter driving past CSHS is a colossal waste of my money and her time, neither of which I'm keen on giving away just so some bureaucrat can feel better about the demographics of the district.

If that is truly how you feel, then make the dividing line Barron Road, like Saratoga suggested. Everything north of that goes north. Live within a block but on the north side, too bad. (That is what happened to parents who lived over by the "grass streets" when CSMS rezoned a long time ago, instead of crossing the street and walking, they got bussed to AMCHS); I loved the response by a committee member when those parents complained-"they're just mad cause they can't afford to move"). Southgate Village, mobile home parks west of the tracks, Windsor Pointe, etc-all Consol. (That goes for elementary too). No bussing necessary. Since there are large #'s of students in the Creekview and surrounding neighborhoods, should address capacity issues. Pebble Creek can use Fitch and get to CSHS.

But no cut outs and sending south, no transferring Consol-zoned teachers' children to southern schools, no sports transfers for CATE programs, and no bond issue until at least 2020/2021.

Now your child won't have to drive the extra distance.