Postpone and Overhaul DeJONG-RICHTER-Proposed Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure of FBISD

Dear FBISD residents:

Following is our open letter to the FBISD Board of Trustees and Superintendent Dupre. If you agree with our opinions therein, please show your support by signing this letter. Thank you.

Postpone and Overhaul DeJONG-RICHTER-Proposed Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure of FBISD

Dear members of FBISD Board of Trustees and Superintendent Dupre,

The seventh largest independent school district in Texas, FBISD faces a far-reaching rezoning process. “We are considering changes that will affect our community for years to come,” (An important message from Dr. Charles Dupre, Superintendent of Schools, October 24, 2014)  and “[t]his is the first time we’ve looked at this school district in a comprehensive way...” (Opening remarks by Ms. Beth Martinez from FBISD at the Oct. 22, 2014 Community Dialog Meeting - Elkins High School). As such, the DeJONG-RICHTER-proposed Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure of FBISD warrants strict public scrutiny.

Robust discussions, as well as deep concerns, arose in the community immediately after the DeJONG-RICHTER-proposed Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure of FBISD was made public, especially after its presentations for public feedback at the Community Dialog Meetings on October 21 and 22, 2014, by DeJONG-RICHTER’s Geographic Information Systems Analyst Scott Leopold. We particularly wish to bring the following to the attention of the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent: 

Failure to Follow FBISD’s Facilities Master Plan Proposal without Justification Thereof

On April 21, 2014, FBISD approved the Facilities Master Plan Proposal, which contemplates rezoning Cornerstone Elementary to Austin High School (see Table 6, page 8 of the Proposal) and a budget to add ten classrooms to that high school (see Table 5, page 7 of the Proposal). In its Final Recommendations Report to FBISD on the same day, DeJONG-RICHTER also recommends moving Cornerstone Elementary into the to Austin High School. In fact, DeJONG-RICHTER’s projected utilization of Austin High by 2018, taking into consideration the ten added classrooms, is 96%,  which is substantially below its allowable maximum utilization of 120% (see page 6 of DeJONG-RICHTER’s 4/21/2014 Final Recommendations Report).

However, in DeJONG-RICHTER’s recently presented Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure, Cornerstone Elementary, instead of feeding Austin High, feeds Clements High. The projections in DeJONG-RICHTER’s Final Recommendations Report appeared to be results of comprehensive, professionally-conducted studies, funded by FBISD’s tax dollars. Why is this well-studied recommendation not adopted? What other studies have been conducted to justify proposing the current feeder pattern structure in disregard of the original one? We have yet to know.

Questionable Data

At least one considerable error was found in DeJONG-RICHTER’s Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure. Its projected number of students going to Clements High from Telfair Lofts were 10, while a couple of residents found that it should be around 117. On October 21, 2014, after his presentation at the Community Dialog Meeting, Mr. Leopold was asked about this discrepancy. At the following evening’s second Community Dialog Meeting, apparently after his own verification, Mr. Leopold admitted the error and promised its correction, to be posted on the FBISD’s website. When asked for the supporting raw data for the projected numbers in the Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure, Mr. Leopold promised that such raw data would be posted on the FBISD website by Friday October 24, 2014. But so far, these data have not been seen on the FBISD website. Nor was the afore-mentioned correction. 117 versus 10 is a discrepancy substantial enough to bring into issue the reliability of Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure’s projections and hence the validity of the entire proposed feeder pattern structure.

The supporting raw data must be made available to the public with no further delay.

Implausibility in light of the FBISD’s Established Policies

DeJONG-RICTER alleges that it used the policies set by the FBISD Board of Trustees as the baseline for the proposed Preliminary Feeder Structure. But if this proposal were implemented, its effects, we believe, would be otherwise. 

Our first concern is the safety of our students, which is also contemplated in the FBISD’s policies. The Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure proposes rezoning Cornerstone Elementary to Clements High. Since most of these students live in areas northwest of Highway 59, more traffic pressure will be on the already increasingly crowded University Boulevard, Sweetwater Boulevard, Elkins Boulevard and the feeder roads along Highway 59, making traffic congestion more likely to occur. In addition, as many high school students choose to drive to school, these new drivers, in such undesirable traffic conditions, would pose a potential safety hazard to the residents around Clements High, to the students of Clements High, and to themselves. These safety hazards have not been adequately assessed and addressed.

It is also FBISD’s policies to allow future growth and provide adequate services to all students. Contrary to the Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure’s projections, one of us, a former management consultant, using publicly available data, including data by PASA (same data used by DeJONG-RICHTER), has found in his own projections that upon the full implementation of the proposed feeder pattern structure by 2018, Clements High will break its maximum utilization of 120%, which allows no future growth at all! As for adequate service, we should bear in mind that Clements High already uses eight trailers (portable or modular classrooms), and pushing its utilization to 120% would require installing another eleven trailers—if it has enough space to add so many trailers at all—making it a “trailer park” high school. That is not consistent with the policy of adequate services. And we should be more alert to this situation when we think of the lesson of Commonwealth Elementary, where, as a result of over utilization, even students living within walking distance from that school have to attend another one miles away. We do not want Clements High to be the high school version of Commonwealth Elementary.

We wish to have the afore-mentioned projections presented to the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent at your earliest convenience. 

Inconsistence with the Fairness Principle

One of the controversies in our school district is the Academies program. Many consider it a great success and advocate its continuation, while many others favor its termination. But its fate is still to be determined by the Board in November 2014. Notwithstanding, the Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure, which was presumably started many weeks ago, already contemplates the program’s removal. In fact, all its utilization projections are based on the assumption of no Academies students on campus—as if the Academies program had already been terminated. Not only such an assumption makes the Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure inherently defective, the presentations of this proposed feeder pattern structure may confuse and mislead the public, subjecting to prejudice the residents who are advocating the Academies program’s continuation. This is unfair to them.

In his presentation, Mr. Leopold explained that one of the goals of the Preliminary Feeder Pattern Structure is to have students stay together, to enable those who go to elementary school and middle school together to go to the same high school as well. This is, of course, commendable. However, under the same proposed feeder pattern structure, some students will cease to have this benefit. For example, Austin Parkway Elementary students going to Clements High will be reduced to zero, which means some of that school’s students who would otherwise be able to go to Clements High with their middle school friends will no longer be able to do so. Cannot we avoid this? Shouldn’t we be more thoughtful and careful when our action hurts than when it benefits someone?

The residents advocating the Academies program’s continuation and the residents who are parents of those Austin Parkway Elementary students may not be the majority, and their voices may not be loud enough to be heard, but the traditional and fundamental American values compel this community to do its best to ensure that their interest, the interest of the less represented, be fully protected.   

Recommendations

1. We respectfully recommend that the Board postpone any rezoning discussion until the decision regarding the Academies program is made in November this year, and postpone the deadline for public feedback and the Board’s voting on any rezoning plan accordingly;

2. We request that DeJONG-RICHTER immediately make available to the public all the raw data supporting the projections in its proposed feeder pattern structure on the FBISD website; all public feedback thereto and the Board voting thereon should be postponed by the same number of days from Friday October 24, 2014 (the day these data were supposed to be available) to the day such data are provided on the FBISD website;

3. We respectfully recommend that the Board consider DeJONG-RICHTER’s recommendation of rezoning Cornerstone Elementary to Austin High in its Final Recommendations Report dated April 21, 2014.

We appreciate the Board’s and the Superintendent’s effort in building consensus to do what is best for our students, to which we are more than willing to add our own.