Big City Growing pains: Frisco ISD heads back to meetings to talk school boundary
Frisco ISD opened its jazzy new administration building just in time for the boundary battles, an annual seat-filling event in this mushrooming district.
Consider it the legacy of a thriving district that champions small schools. Like Plano, Richardson, Lewisville and a host of others who know the dance well, it’s also the price of a successful suburban district.
“The problem is everyone likes the schools they have,” said a half-joking Superintendent Rick Reedy at tonight’s board meeting, where citizens could offer their input. “The truth is the schools just get too large some times. It’s a good thing parents don’t want to move their children from the school but it just happens.”
In any given year, the district proposes around three zoning changes. But the count rose to five this year due to new openings and potential overcrowding.
Handfuls of parents shifted in and out of the meeting, depending on their allotted speaking time. The complaints sounded familiar but no less meaningful to parents who chose their home largely for the school they thought their child would attend.
They pointed to the need for stability in young lives, the importance of neighborhood unity and the investment they’d already make in their child’s schools.
Administrators listened, nodded and said they’d heard it before.
School leaders keep it no secret that boundaries will change. “We make no promises for four years away in this district,” Reedy said. The schools continue to rank as some of the fastest growing in the country.
The board said it might consider grandfathering students into their original schools, but only in certain situations. Officials are wary of transfers as they can feed crowded schools. But the option does exist for some schools under capacity.
A security guard ventured near the podium at one point when several impassioned parents refused to leave the stand.
Rezoning maps flashed on a wall-sized screen, with smaller televisions visible for the audience seated further back. The window-filled building, which cost more than $20 million and opened at the end of November, showcases just how much the district has grown. Some staff hit elbows in their previous space. The new multilevel structure gleams on a horizon of subdivisions and undeveloped land.
The building’s board room will remain popular through at least January when members solidify the boundaries.
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