Fort Worth ISD outlines sweeping zoning changes, relocation of students, staff
The Fort Worth Independent School District is making the first major changes to its zoning map in more than 20 years, re-thinking which elementary, middle and high schools will feed into each other in an effort to keep students together from grade to grade and better utilize campus space.
The changes have been mapped out in phases from the fall of 2020 through the fall of 2023, officials described during a school board meeting on Tuesday night.
As part of this sweeping rezoning effort, officials said, the district is trying to “decentralize” its administrative staff, or move them away from a centralized office to buildings across the district where they’ll be closer to students and teachers. The district has already sold six buildings previously used for administrative offices.
Superintendent Dr. Kent Scribner described the district’s vision during the meeting, emphasizing officials hope to ultimately improve the student experience by simplifying the feeder system that determines how they advance through school. The goal, Scribner said, is to have “feeder pyramids” where several elementary schools feed into a couple of middle schools, which feed into one single high school. The district wants to eliminate splits that happen with classmates, where one might graduate to one school and one might go to another.
The South Hills High School pyramid, as an example, is set to change in the fall of 2023 so that Rosemont Middle School — which at this moment feeds into three high schools — will feed only into South Hills. Along with this, students at the current Rosemont Sixth Grade Center will be moved to Rosemont Elementary School, freeing up the sixth grade building for other uses.
It will be turned into a campus for students of the Applied Learning Academy program, who currently go to class in a former shopping mall.
“Moving ALA onto the Rosemont Sixth Grade Center would provide a choice for that portion of the city, and provide those students, teachers and school community with an actual school building,” Scribner said during the meeting live-streamed on the district website.
Other buildings across the district are set to be similarly repurposed, such as Handley Middle School, which will transform into a “social and emotional learning center” housing student programs and relocated administrative staff. One of the district’s major goals, according to a PowerPoint presentation shown Tuesday night, is to transition out of all of its sold properties without buying new properties.
Scribner told those watching the meeting in person and online that by next fall, the district hopes all administrative employees will be spread across current campus buildings and one new central office. The plan is for that office to be inside of a district building at 7000 Camp Bowie Blvd., the former site for the ALA program, Scribner said. It will need to be remodeled.
The meeting represented a major update on the building and boundary changes that were approved by the school board in February 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic hit Texas. District officials months earlier announced plans to sell 18 underused properties including the 80-year-old Farrington Field as part of an effort to save money, estimating it could generate $60 million.
The slew of changes will address issues that have long impacted the district, from overcrowding, to under-utilization of assets, to student equity, according to officials. The rezoning will set up a future, officials said, where students within the same feeder pyramid will go through their entire schooling together. Programs offered in feeder schools will also align with programs offered in high school.
Though the district promised there is no funding or vendor required, Clint Bond, a district spokesman, noted there will need to be refurbishments for buildings that will serve new purposes. Where those funds will come from, Bond said, “is to be determined.”
The district hopes to avoid disrupting kids’ current paths through their education as much as possible but Bond said it’s inevitable some students will have to change schools. An example, he said, would be the kids who now have to leave the Rosemont Sixth Grade Center for a new building.
“Before the board approved the boundary changes last year, we had all kinds of meetings around the district,” Bond said over the phone on Friday. “And then when the board approved it, we had lots of virtual meetings with parents, explaining to them what was going to happen.”
The phasing in of all of these changes, from fall 2020 through fall 2023, will give the district time to monitor how the changes are working and possibly make adjustments, officials said.
Nine boundary changes were implemented in the fall. There are 24 more scheduled over the next three years.
A complete breakdown of the changes can be found in the recording of Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 4:51 PM.
