Get the facts before deciding

The school rezoning proposal has divided Flower Mound, giving rise to multiple community Facebook pages and websites supporting different groups and agendas. The very personal way school rezoning will affect our children and their families is why it is so imperative that decisions be based on good information.

Sound decision processes involve gathering evidence and information, and hearing the views of a wide range of experts. In school rezoning such evidence should include demographics, cost benefit analysis, busing plans, traffic patterns, course offerings and more. Evidence based analysis, decisions made on good information and cost benefit analysis, are better decisions and best for most citizens – and they enable people to accept change.  Without this – decisions can be labeled arbitrary and capricious, and unacceptably personal.

What information is important? One thing we want to know is what our schools will look like in the future and how well they’ll be able to serve our children. One measure is Functional Capacity – the capacity at which a school best serves its students. The numbers below come from Lewisville Independent School District (LISD) documents and give us a look out to 2018, five years from now.*

If No Zoning Changes are made, enrollment in 2018 will look like this:
Forestwood will have 581 students and be at 58.1% of Functional Capacity
McKamy will have 882 students and be at 97.7% of Functional Capacity
Shadow Ridge will have 720 students and be at 112.5% of Functional Capacity

If Garden Ridge Elementary is zoned to go to Forestwood instead of Shadow Ridge, enrollment will look like this:
Forestwood will have 812 students — 81.2% of Functional Capacity
McKamy will have 882 students — 97.7% of Functional Capacity
Shadow Ridge will have 489 students — 76.4% of Functional Capacity

If Wellington Elementary is zoned to go to Forestwood instead of McKamy, enrollment will look like this:
Forestwood will have 972 students — 97.5% of Functional Capacity
McKamy will have 488 students — 53.0% of Functional Capacity
Shadow Ridge will have 720 students — 112.5% of Functional Capacity

*The 2018 predicted enrollment numbers are from the Lewisville ISD Campus Capacity Utilization pdf.
The number of students for Wellington Elementary School (WES) and Garden Ridge Elementary School (GRE) who will be attending middle school in 2018 came from the 01/18/2013 enrollment figures for K, 1st and 2nd grades at WES and GRE.

Tiffany Eckert
Flower Mound, TX