Education
BY ANGELA BONILLA
Conroe ISD’s Grand Oaks zoning plan in the works as area continues to grow
Zooming in
The new zones will help to alleviate pressures on elementary schools currently approaching their maximum capacity, McCord said. Arnold Elementary will be located 5175 Wood- son’s Spring Drive, Spring, and it will open in August—serving 950 students in grades K-6. The district previously rezoned its schools in 2023 when it opened Hines Elementary School to address capacity issues, but that school is already at 94% capacity, he said. “[Zoning] is a process that takes six months and we want to get it right ... the first time because, you know, it’s real families and real students and we want to work in the short-term, medium-term and long-term to the best we can,” McCord said.
Other challenges include the physical limits of campuses, as the district already has 300 portable classrooms to support schools, McCord said during a Sept. 30 zoning webinar. It is also constrained by the West Fork San Jacinto River, limiting options for how the zone can be shaped in relation to new neighborhoods. Two zoning scenarios were under consideration for Arnold Elementary in October at the elementary and intermediate school levels. The junior high also has two scenarios under consideration with minimal differences. “Geography poses challenges that [in] the whole area in Woodson’s Reserve is going to be huge,” McCord said to Community Impact .
Conroe ISD is redrawing its Grand Oaks feeder zone attendance boundaries to accommodate a couple of new schools, including Grand Oaks Junior High School and Kacy Arnold Elementary School, while also preserving room for future growth, district officials said. However, the process is complicated by growing enrollment east of I-45 and south of the Grand Parkway in the Woodson’s Reserve development, Assistant Superintendent of Operations Chris McCord said. The district has been looking at strategies to keep students in schools close to home amid continuing development near Grand Parkway, Birnham Woods and Rayford Road, McCord said.
Elementary school capacity
Birnham Woods Elementary 791
Current enrollment
School zoning options in Grand Oaks feeder
83%
Elementary
Ford Elementary 784 Hines Elementary 895 Synder Elementary 787 Bradley Elementary 924 Broadway Elementary 849
97%
Arnold
Birnham Woods
Bradley
Broadway
Ford
Hines
Snyder
Change from first version of scenario
89%
Scenario c2.1
Scenario c2.1.1
BIRNHAM WOODS DR.
BIRNHAM WOODS DR.
99 TOLL
99 TOLL
98%
Kacy Arnold Elementary School
Kacy Arnold Elementary School
94%
83%
SOURCE: CONROE ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
N
N
What’s next
Intermediate
Arnold
Clark
Cox
Change from first version of scenario
The attendance boundary committee will meet in December to finalize the scenarios for the board of trustees to approve in January. The Woodson’s Reserve East area still has 1,300 homes left to sell, and the Tri- Star development also expects additional residences between Woodson’s Reserve East and Riley Fuzzel Road, according to information from the district. This means about 900 more students are expected in the area by early 2029, according to the district. CISD has projected as many as 120,000 students districtwide by 2032. An additional elementary school will eventually be needed in the area south of Arnold Elementary, McCord said.
Scenario c2.1
Scenario c2.1.1
BIRNHAM WOODS DR.
BIRNHAM WOODS DR.
99 TOLL
99 TOLL
Kacy Arnold Elementary School
Kacy Arnold Elementary School
N
N
NOTE: SCENARIOS ARE CURRENT AS OF PRESS TIME AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE. SOURCE: CONROE ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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THE WOODLANDS EDITION
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