Fort Worth school zones to change for the first time in 20 years. Will your child move?
Fort Worth Superintendent Kent P. Scribner is broaching a topic that often rankles families and taxpayers — school boundary changes.
“Why are we doing this? We want to fix a broken feeder pattern. A feeder pattern that has not been looked at in a comprehensive way since 1999,” Scribner said.
A school boundary, or attendance zone, determines what public schools students go to based on where they live. Changes in attendance zones tend to spark worry among families who have purchased a home so their children can attend a specific school.
That concern surfaced last year when the board approved a school attendance for the new Overton Park Elementary School that is under construction and aims to ease overcrowding at Tanglewood Elementary.
Before taking a plan to the school board, Scribner has embarked on a series of community forums to address feeder patterns, overcrowding, demographic shifts and equity for students. The forums will be at the district’s 13 traditional high schools.
The district has about 84,000. The district has indicated that the percentage of students who will be affected will be small.
The first forum was held at Arlington Heights High School on Sept. 17. More forums are planned throughout the fall.
Tiffany Rogers, president of the Fort Worth ISD Council of PTAs, attended the first town hall and is urging families to find out more about the issue.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize this is the opportunity to get your feedback,” Rogers said.
Scribner said he wants to listen to the community before drafting a comprehensive plan that would be presented to the school board in the spring.
The Arlington Heights model
Scribner said broken feeder patterns have resulted in a “quagmire” with overcrowding in some schools while others are underused.
“We are not operating as efficiently as we will be operating pending the board’s approval of a plan,” he said.
Scribner said the district is working with Arlington Heights as a model school feeder pattern.
“Arlington Heights requires no comprehensive changes, maybe some tinkering around the edges,” Scribner said. “Arlington Heights is the model — that’s the example we are trying to achieve.”
The high school is supported by two middle schools, Stripling and Monnig. Each of those schools are fed by three elementary schools, including North Hi Mount, South Hi Mount, Riglea Hills, M.L. Phillips, Burton Hill and Como.
“That makes sense,” Scribner said, adding that they hope to replicate the Arlington Heights model across the district.
Scribner said this pattern creates a vertical alignment of schools, specialized academic programs, athletics and supervisors of school administrators. This allows for greater accountability, he said.
“We are starting the modern age of Fort Worth ISD,” Scribner said.
Overcrowding, empty space
Scribner pointed out issues in overcrowding and underuse in south Fort Worth where South Hills and Southwest high schools sit about a mile apart. South Hills High School is expected to be at about 2,100 students while Southwest High School has 1,300 students on a larger campus.
“We have to fix this and the only way to fix this is through boundary realignment,” Scribner said.
Scribner said Rosemont Middle, in the South Hills attendance area, sends eighth-grade students to three high schools. Students go to South Hills High School, O.D.Wyatt High School and Paschal High School.
That pattern means the Rosemont Middle School principal has to coordinate with three high schools, Scribner said.
Scribner said if the district can also retool boundaries to expand programs of choice, such as applied learning, Montessori, single sex campuses and STEM.
The choice programs have waiting lists. Families also want a pre-kindergarten to high school pipeline for these programs. Scribner said some campuses aren’t even tucked in a neighborhood. For example, an Applied Learning Center and International Newcomer Academy are two specialized programs housed in an renovated department store.
Forum schedule
▪ Wyatt High School, 2400 E. Seminary Dr., 6 p.m. Thursday
▪ Amon Carter-Riverside High School, 3301 Yucca Ave., new cafeteria, 6 p.m. Oct. 3
▪ North Side High School, 2211 McKinley Ave., auditorium, 6 p.m. Oct. 10
▪ Eastern Hills High School, 5701 Shelton St., auditorium, 6 p.m. Oct. 16
▪ Benbrook Middle-High School, 201 Overcrest Dr. in Benbrook, auditorium, 6 p.m. Oct. 17
▪ Diamond Hill-Jarvis, 1411 Maydell St., auditorium, 6 p.m. Oct. 21
▪ Western Hills, 3600 Boston Ave., auditorium, 6 p.m. Oct. 29
▪ Polytechnic, 1300 Conner Ave., auditorium, 6 p.m. Oct. 30
▪ Dunbar, 5700 Ramey Ave., auditorium, 6 p.m. Nov. 4
▪ South Hills, 6101 McCart Ave., auditorium, 6 p.m. Nov. 7
▪ Southwest, 4100 Altamesa Blvd., auditorium, 6 p.m. Nov. 18
▪ Paschal, 3001 Forest Park, auditorium, 6 p.m. Nov. 19
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
