Frisco ISD has had to open 61 new campuses over the past 20 years to keep up with the city’s rapid growth.
In that time, the district has had to rezone, or adjust its school attendance boundaries, 17 times, according to district spokesperson Korinna Kirchhoff.
School board trustees are tasked with redrawing the maps to account for future growth, assessing which changes would last the longest and keeping school populations small. During a recent Frisco ISD podcast episode about boundary adjustments, chief communications officer Amanda McCune said the process has been a “large player in the history of Frisco ISD” since the early 2000s.
After a new plan was proposed during last week’s board meeting, many community members raised questions about the process, even alleging that the maps were “gerrymandered” to benefit elected officials, which the school district and others denied.
The Dallas Morning News sought information from district officials and its website about what can be a complicated, contentious process.
Who creates the proposed zoning maps for Frisco ISD?
The district employs in-house demographers and hires a third-party consulting group to determine zoning maps.
What are the district’s considerations when adjusting attendance boundaries?
The two parties assess growth in neighborhoods, new construction, population trends and the number of students who would be affected.
“The district looks at zones that can stay in place for the longest period of time while disrupting as few students as possible when rezoning,” Kirchhoff wrote in an email. “Some growing areas have anticipated rapid growth, and the district is actively planning ahead for the communities with these boundaries.”
How are existing campuses affected when a new one opens?
When a new campus opens, the district has historically changed attendance zones across the district to balance student enrollment and effectively use its facilities.
The proposed zoning map presented last week was created to incorporate the anticipated opening of Panther Creek High School in northwest Frisco next fall.
Is the community involved in rezoning plans?
Community members can share their opinions via email, regular mail or phone, and they can comment during public hearings before the board of trustees votes on the changes.
Why does the process become contentious?
Parents often protest the changes because they want their children to go to a specific school. Rezoning school boundaries has become a part of living in Frisco, the state’s fastest-growing city with more than 50,000 people, and leaders have said to expect continued change.
“Rezoning negatively impacts the emotional well being of our children,” the parents’ petition states. “Rezoned high schoolers will be separated from teacher and friend relationships which would affect mental health, college recommendations, coaching, opportunities for leadership, activity involvement and much more.”
Deputy Superintendent of Business and Operations Todd Fouche discussed the district’s approach to rezoning on the recent podcast episode.
Several thousand new students enroll in Frisco ISD each year, which Fouche acknowledged is enough to fill an entire high school.
What will boundary adjustments look like with the opening of Panther Creek?
The proposed map shows Panther Creek will take students from 10 precincts zoned to Memorial High School and four precincts zoned to Lone Star High School, which will pull one precinct from Reedy High to balance the student population.
Wakeland will extend its southeast boundaries and pull seven precincts from Frisco High, and to balance the loss of students rezoned to Wakeland, Frisco High will pull five precincts from Reedy’s southwestern-most neighborhoods.
Some Reedy parents say that their children’s travel time to school would increase and that the district is taking an “unnecessary step.” Their ideal plan: Extend Wakeland’s boundaries directly into the northernmost precincts of the overcrowded Reedy zone and leave Frisco High’s unchanged.
But Kirchhoff said this plan would affect about 180 more students than the district’s proposed plan, and the district’s overall goal is to use the least-disruptive zoning map.
By the numbers
- 65,000: Frisco ISD students, approximately
- 43: Elementary campuses, including one under construction
- 17: Middle school campuses
- 12: High school campuses including Panther Creek, which is expected to open in fall 2022
- 81%: The percentage of land within district boundaries that is developed, planned for development or designated green space
- 2,000 to 3,500: New Frisco students enrolled each year
- 2,100: Goal threshold for high school enrollment
