Students in new Colleyville neighborhood won’t go to closest elementary school

Instead of going to nearby Heritage Elementary School in Colleyville, students in a new neighborhood will be bused to O.C. Taylor Elementary School to alleviate potential future crowding at the campus.

Grapevine-Colleyville trustees approved the change at the July 24 board meeting.

District demographers expect Creekside at Colleyville to generate about 80 elementary students when the neighborhood is complete. Officials said Heritage Elementary School, now with a 2016-17 enrollment of 470, could exceed its functional capacity in six years if no changes were made.

This past year, seven students from Creekside at Colleyville attended Heritage Elementary. Those students and their siblings would be allowed to remain at the campus, officials said. The development is near the center of the Heritage Elementary attendance zone.

“We’ve had several discussions at the district level on different options of how we can distribute that enrollment growth between Heritage, O.C. Taylor and Grapevine Elementary,” Daiann Mooney, chief financial officer told trustees.

In addition to Creekside, two other new developments near Heritage Elementary should generate more students, officials said.Villas at Windsor Steele in Colleyville is projected to have just two elementary students, but Glade Parks in Euless is projected to have 52 elementary students.

Board President Lisa Pardo said trustees had three workshops on the proposed demographic changes and had plenty of time to consider the options.

Because the neighborhood is two miles or more from O.C. Taylor and considered a hazardous route, students would have bus service.

Mooney said the middle school and high school attendance zones for the areas remain unchanged.

Creekside at Colleyville, southwest of Glade Road and Heritage Avenue, has about two dozen sites currently available with homes starting at $660,000.

Board members also approved rezoning the Gatehouse, a Grapevine non-profit that provides housing for women in crisis and their children, from Heritage Elementary to Grapevine Elementary. Any students who were registered before June 2 to attend Heritage in 2017-18 would be allowed to remain at Heritage, officials said.

This story was originally published August 2, 2017 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Students in new Colleyville neighborhood won’t go to closest elementary school."