Sienna Residents Speak Up Against Split & Over-Crowding in this Chronicle Article (click title link)--

Parents oppose moving students from Hightower

Much of the debate addressed the plan to rezone nearly 600 students from crowded Hightower High to Elkins High. The plan splits Sienna Plantation subdivision along Sienna Parkway, west of which would be in the Elkins zone that also would gobble up Vicksburg subdivision across from Sienna Plantation.
"I think it's a mistake," Sienna Plantation parent Donna Ferguson said of the proposal. "Our neighborhood needs to stay together. Our kids are happy with being at Hightower."

Neighbor Mark Shively said the plan would separate his Hightower sophomore daughter from her best friend who lives on the far southeast side of the district who will continue to attend Hightower.

"It would be emotionally disruptive to my daughter," he said. "She's been on the softball team and knows all the girls and the coach. She doesn't want to leave."

Not part of the proposal but an idea thrown out at a recent school board, a suggestion to use Texas 6 as a dividing line for rezoning this part of the school district also elicited renewed opposition at the forum from parents, including those from Lake Olympia subdivision, who fear that the idea would divide their neighborhood. . .


. . . Scanlan Oaks Elementary School parent and teacher Patrice Hartsfield said, "the district doesn't have a plan" to address long-term needs. She said she is worried about her school, which had an enrollment of 1,061 pupils last October, will have 1,240 pupils this fall and 1,605 in 2011. The campus was built for 820 pupils, according to the district.

"Please, please come up with a plan for our children, and quick," Hartsfield pleaded. . .


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Comment--current 2007 projected functional capacities for Sienna area schools: BBMS 104%+; Sienna Crossing 145%+ and Scanlon Elem. 165%+ (based on district projections).