Brittany Kelley
KYLE — The Hays CISD Board of Trustees approved zoning changes for Sunfield Elementary School and McCormick Middle School at its Oct. 26 meeting.
The item initially included Johnson and Lehman high schools, but Chief Communication Officer Tim Savoy stated at the beginning of his presentation at the Oct. 19 meeting that they will no longer be part of the recommendation.
The request to rezone is a result of fast growth, said Savoy, as it’s usually required when a new school opens, but, sometimes, is needed in between, as well. However, he emphasized that staff recognizes that this could be disruptive and has attempted to limit this as much as they could.
“This plan is a bit of a bridge plan, to get us from Point A, where we’re at, to hopefully all the way to Point B, which are the new schools opening, and that would be the natural time to rezone to add those schools in there,” Savoy said.
Regarding Sunfield, the plan was originally to move the prekindergarten program to Tom Green Elementary School, but, after community response, it was decided to leave the program as-is, though Savoy said that this may not be feasible in the future.
Instead, the change will affect cap and overflow students — or families that move into the district after Jan. 1, 2027 — located in Planning Unit 42 and 43B, as they will be slated to attend Tom Green, rather than the zoned school of Sunfield. These units include houses in the southeast and southern portion of the Sunfield subdivision.
There are currently 1,042 students at Sunfield, with a maximum capacity of 1,200. Without the change, this number will rise to 1,134 in the 2027-28 school year and to 1,226 in 2028-29. After implementing the cap and overflow student adjustment next year, the estimated enrollment will be 1,075 for 2027-28 and 1,108 for 2028-29.
This will allow for the growth to be controlled, as by the time Sunfield reaches 1,171 students in 2029-30, Elementary School #18 will be preparing to open for the 2030-31 school year.
Tom Green has 615 students and will reach no more than 732 by 2030, even with the newly zoned students.
“I want to point out, [so] that everyone will know: I think there’s been some misconception that if the campus has more kids then the class sizes are bigger — totally two separate things. The campus total capacity is what we’re looking at when we’re talking about zoning, [while] class sizes are a function of state funding and how many teachers we can hire,” clarified Savoy.
In actuality, if the student population were to lower, for example at Sunfield, he continued, the staff would move to where the new growth is being relocated.
The next hotspot for the district is McCormick Middle School.
“The problem that we really have with McCormick is, while it’s a 1,600 maximum capacity, you really start getting pressure on what’s called the core facilities — the cafeteria, the gyms, all of those types of things,” said Savoy.
The middle school sits at 1,358 students and in 2030, when there will be a full district rezone, there would be 1,687. So, the suggestion is to shift Planning Units 52, 102 and 103 — located south and east of the large curve on Windy Hill Road — to attend Chapa Middle School. Chapa has 802 students, which would rise to 995 after McCormick students begin attending next year. Although it would reach 1,091 by 2030, this is only 20 more than capacity and a full district rezone would occur the same year.
As with the elementary schools, there are grandfathering clauses available, such as allowing younger siblings to stay or finishing out middle school careers at McCormick, if the family so chooses, though transportation would not be provided.
“We’re pretty confident that if we make this very limited plan come to fruition, that that is going to help out and it’s going to buy us a little time and we're going to get to the opening of those new schools,” Savoy stated.
Trustee Esperanza Orosco shared her approval, as she felt that the plan could relieve some of the pressure experienced by Sunfield and McCormick.
“I hope the community understands how well we listened to what they’re providing us because it was immediate the feedback that we received and the reaction to changing the plans based on their feedback. So, I just want to continue to encourage that feedback because it is listened to and it is acted upon,” said trustee Geoff Seibel.
No action was taken at the Oct. 19 meeting, but at the Oct. 26 meeting, trustee Byron Severance motioned to approve the rezoning, with a second from Katy Armstrong. The item passed unanimously.
