DRIPPING SPRINGS — On Thursday, Oct. 17, Dripping Springs ISD held the first of four community meetings regarding its attendance rezoning, which is set to be voted on by the board of trustees in December, in preparation for the opening of the district’s sixth elementary school in the fall of 2025.
DSISD Superintendent Dr. Holly Morris-Kuentz began the presentation by explaining that there is a two-part committee working on the rezoning map. There is the administrative advisory committee, which will ultimately recommend the map to the board. There is also a community advisory committee, which includes 14 parents — two from each elementary and middle school — as well as two members to represent the community-at-large and two ex-officio DSISD trustees.
According to Morris-Kuentz, the committee began on Sept. 4 with three initial map options provided by Population and Survey Analysts (PASA), which is contracted to perform demographic studies of the district every two years and provides projected enrollment data for the future.
After reviewing those maps, the community advisory committee designed 13 additional map options. Throughout the planning process and gathering feedback from the community, those 13 maps were adjusted and narrowed down to three maps — C, J and M — which were presented to attendees of the community meetings.
When looking at the projections, the committee was tasked with balancing campuses through the 2027-28 school year, when an additional elementary school is projected to open, and the 202829 school year, when an additional middle school is projected to open. Morris-Kuentz also pointed out that “even if [the committees] got it exactly right” the district as a whole will be approximately 120 elementary-aged students over-capacity in the 202728 school year.
The committee has not yet discussed the parameters for grandfathering students to their current zones, but will be making its recommendations once a map is finalized.
More than 15 district parents spoke at the meeting to share their perspectives on different aspects of the proposed maps. Many concerns centered around the safety and time it would take to drive to specific schools along already congested roadways, especially US 290 and Ranch Road 12.
“To be honest with you, I was a little bit surprised that our neighborhood was even up for consideration to being rezoned, considering we're the closest neighborhood to Walnut Springs Elementary … The drive from our neighborhood to Dripping Springs Elementary during traffic hours will take an extensive amount of time for those of us who have children in both Dripping Springs Elementary School and the middle school,” said parent Crissalame Discher. “There have been times when it takes me more than 25 minutes to go two miles during rush hour, whereas right now we can walk to pick our kids up from school.”
For one parent, another rezone for her family was an emotional topic.
“First of all, I want to thank you guys for getting together to do this. I would have volunteered to actually be on the committee, [but] I left that open to the families I thought would be impacted by this,” explained parent Shannon Moss. “I never thought our little neighborhood would even be up for discussion because we're on the literally farthest point of the other side of the district and this is really emotional for me because my family has poured our heart and soul into Cypress Springs [Elementary] … This would be our fourth rezone and that's a lot for a family to have to deal with and I don't want our families to do that.”
For Lauren Paine, who lives in Sunset Canyon South, keeping her neighborhood children in the same school was important.
“We've been here since 2015 and we watched Sycamore and Cypress be built. In both of those maps, they have had us going to Sycamore and then, at the very end, kept us at [Dripping Springs Elementary],” Paine said. “Our kids have started school there and we understand that we're going to have to be moved, but I just don't see how us, again, not going straight across and having to be moved over here makes any sense. … Also, the first two maps divide up our neighborhood, which makes me really unhappy. Our kids have definitely made relationships through the bus. We live on acreage, so those neighborhoods, that's kind of how we form our relationships.”
Moving forward, the committee will gather feedback from the community meetings, as well as the online feedback form, and continue to refine the maps at its next two meetings, scheduled for Oct. 24 and Dec. 3.
The committee recommended map will be presented to the board of trustees for the first time on Nov. 18. The final decision on the map will be approved on Dec. 16 and it will be rolled out to the public in January 2025.
For more information, to see the proposed maps, along with enrollment projections, and to submit feedback, visit www.dsisdtx.us/page/ attendance-zoning.
To watch the full presentation, visit https:// fb.watch/vimF3mNgFq/.
