Southwest Austin neighborhoods wrestle with school boundary changes
By Molly Bloom
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
AUSTIN (Austin American-Statesman), Tuesday November 18, 2008 –Southwest Austin neighborhoods are wrestling over where the district should draw attendance boundaries for a new middle school scheduled to open for the 2009-10 school year .
Mills Elementary School PTA Secretary Judy Bienvenu, whose son and daughter attend Mills, said current plans would force some Mills students to start both sixth grade and ninth grade at different middle and high school campuses than some of their friends. Currently, all Mills students attend the same middle and high schools.
"Those are the two most challenging times in a kid's life socially," Bienvenu said. "They're going to have to make new friends (in sixth grade). And they're going to have to relive that experience again at ninth grade."
A 35-member task force with representatives from affected schools has been working on the attendance zone map since May. The group will discuss revisions — including the effects of the economic slowdown on population projections — at their meeting today at 6 p.m. at Bailey Middle School, 4020 Lost Oasis Hollow.
The task force will present its recommendations to the Austin school board for final approval in January . Trustees will also decide whether seventh- and eighth-graders would be allowed to remain at their current schools or be required to enroll at the new campus, said Joe Silva , the district's assistant director of planning services.
The campus, referred to as the new southwest middle school until trustees select a permanent name, is at FM 1826 and West Slaughter Lane and was built with $37.7 million from the district's $519.5 million 2004 bond package.
Silva said one of the central issues in the attendance zone discussions has been the desire for students from Clayton, Kiker and Mills elementary schools all to attend the new middle school.
"If that happens, you get to full capacity within three years," Silva said.
Currently, Clayton students are divided between Bailey and Small middle schools. All Kiker students attend Bailey, and all Mills students attend Small. Under the new attendance zone plan, all Clayton and Kiker students would attend the new middle school. But some Mills students would attend the new middle school, while others would attend Small.
Students from all three elementary schools currently attend Bowie High School, and those attendance zones will remain unchanged, Silva said.
Silva said it's common for Austin elementary school students at one campus to attend different middle and high schools. Some Oak Hill Elementary School students, for example, attend O. Henry Middle School and others Small.
The O. Henry students attend Austin High School, while the Small students are split between Bowie and Austin High.
Bienvenu said she understands the need to balance enrollment, ideally at 75 percent when opening new schools, but said it is "a very aggravating political process."
"We just want to stay together," she said. "We don't care what middle school we go to,"
mbloom@statesman.com; 445-3620
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