Cedar Park - Far Northwest Austin Edition | December 2024

Education

Leander ISD explores opening enrollment Leander ISD is considering opening enrollment to students living outside of the district’s boundar- ies as its enrollment growth slows. District ocials provided an update on the work of the Long Range Planning Committee’s open enrollment subcommittee at a Nov. 21 board of trustees meeting. A closer look The district would need to assess how open enrollment would impact its resources and stang, and determine which campuses and grade levels could accept transfers based on their available space, said Mike Howard, LISD director of ne arts and administrative co-chair on the subcommittee. Additionally, LISD would need to determine what the cost-benet of open enrollment would be and what enrollment caps would be needed to

LISD considers digital learning platform LISD is exploring collaborating with Softchoice, an IT solutions provider, to build a digital learning platform for its students. The gist The platform would house students’ academic and nonacademic information that district sta and parents could access. Students could set and monitor goals, display their work, and provide information about their interests and activities. This data could help teachers and parents better support their students and drive decisions for campuses, Softchoice said. Some context LISD’s district improvement plan includes implementing a comprehensive data warehouse tool.

“Our public schools are where it’s at, so if we can provide open enrollment …

that means they’re making a choice to come to a public school, not go to a voucher, not go to a charter school.” ANNA SMITH, PLACE 4 BOARD MEMBER

ensure adequate space for current students. What they’re saying School board President Gloria Gonzales-Dhola- kia asked district ocials to consider only opening campuses below a certain enrollment level and determine when the district might see a nancial benet. Gonzales-Dholakia said LISD could charge an application or registration fee while Place 1 board member Trish Bode asked if LISD had considered charging tuition.

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