FBN Covers Candidates Forum at the Marriot--

Fort Bend ISD Board Candidates Outline Goals, Vie For Union Support
by Bob Dunn, Apr 13, 2007

The campaign for two Fort Bend Independent School District board seats swung into high gear Thursday night, as candidates appeared at the season’s first public forum and vied for endorsements by the Fort Bend Employee Federation.

Three of the four candidates present – Board Position 3 incumbent Lisa Rickert and challenger Bob Broxson, and Board Position 7 challenger Noel Pinnock – answered in the affirmative to a key question posed by the 1,500-member federation, an arm of the American Federation of Teachers labor union.

The question: “Would you vote to allow FBISD employees to elect their own representatives to meet and confer with the administration on matters of policy and procedures?”

Position 7 challenger David Reitz didn’t provide a direct answer to the question, saying “I can’t tell you right now one way or the other.”

Follow the link below for the full story (or click the title link):


http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/2785/fort-bend-isd-board-candidates-outline-goals-vie-for-unioin-support

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. . .


--Click the title link above for the full story--


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

From the Chronicle: Sienna School Zoning Gets FBISD Attention--

Fort Bend ISD, trustees get barrage of queries on zoning
Some parents object to repeated rezoning of pupils

By SESHADRI KUMAR
Chronicle Correspondent

The proposed zoning for Elkins and Hightower high schools, which hinges on splitting Sienna Plantation into two groups, is among issues eliciting a large number of comments from parents in the Fort Bend Independent School District.

Other issues are implementing a kindergarten-to-sixth-grade campus concept at nine elementaries and housing only grades 7-8 at Missouri City and Christa McAuliffe middle schools, establishing a gifted-and-talented middle school academy, and zoning for a new elementary in Telfair. . . .

--One resident made a popular suggestion for helping with over-crowding--

. . ."Leslie Bauer of Lake Olympia has two suggestions: one for long term and one for the short term. Bauer said the school district should lobby the Legislature and pass a law to make developers of big master-planned communities donate land and contribute to building schools. This is being done successfully in other states, she said." . . .(click title link above for more).


Don't miss the Hightower zoning meeting Feb. 15th at 6p. at the campus!


--Stay informed and keep in touch!--

From FBN: Zoning Battles Heat Up

Fort Bend ISD Board Gets An Earful From Parents Upset Over District Rezoning Plans
by Bob Dunn, Feb 12, 2007, 11 27 pm

After a Monday workshop in which Fort Bend Independent School District Board trustees made little apparent progress toward a final redrawing of school attendance zones, two groups of parents illustrated the difficulties inherent in that task.

At a regular FBISD board meeting Monday night after the workshop, parents packed the meeting room, and several assailed trustees over preliminary rezoning plans for the district. . . (click title link to get more).

Zoning props available at http://www.fortbend.k12.tx.us/cmf/default.cfm?module=tidbits§ion=parentlinks


Comment: If you are concerned about the over-crowding at our Sienna area schools and the proposed split of the high school attendance zone, then you may want to attend the nearest zoning meeting this Feb. 15th at Hightower. The mtg. will start at 6p.


Stay informed and keep in touch!