McKinney | March 2025

Education

BY SHELBIE HAMILTON

District officials create Caldwell Dual Language Academy

A change in attendance boundaries and pro- gramming for some bilingual students will be implemented for the 2025-26 school year. The McKinney ISD board of trustees voted unan- imously to expand select attendance boundaries and create the Caldwell Dual Language Academy at a Feb. 24 meeting. The gist McKinney ISD currently offers bilingual instruc- tion in Spanish and English through the English as a Second Language program at various campuses including Finch Elementary, as well as through the two-way dual language program at Caldwell Elementary. The dual language program com- bines emergent bilingual students with students learning Spanish. Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, select students in the dual language program will attend Caldwell Dual Language Academy, which is currently Caldwell Elementary. The school will no longer have a dedicated attendance zone, and will instead serve all emergent bilingual students in the newly created Finch Elementary zone. Finch Elementary will serve monolingual students within its new attendance zone, which includes the current attendance zones for Finch and Caldwell elementary schools, as well as a portion of the Webb Elementary zone. The setup A review committee assessed various elements of each program, including enrollment data, stu- dent achievement data and more, prior to pursu- ing the dual language academy model for Caldwell Elementary. The review ultimately identified that the district can more effectively serve students by

The newly established Finch Elementary attendance zone will include the previous Caldwell Elementary attendance zone as well as the southern portion of the Webb Elementary attendance zone.

Caldwell Dual Language Academy

Finch Elementary

Webb Elementary

Previous attendance zones

Updated attendance zones

Webb

Caldwell

380

Finch

HARRY MCKILLOP BLVD.

SOURCE: MCKINNEY ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT

concentrating monolingual and bilingual programs at specific campuses, Assistant Superintendent of Business Operations Dennis Womack said, noting that the change is intended to improve the quality and effectiveness of both bilingual programs. Students wishing to attend the academy that don’t currently attend the dual language program must apply through the Choose McKinney ISD program by April 4.

"Our findings from that review of those programs was that obviously the dual language program is successful and that it does support our English language learners, the data yields that." DENNIS WOMACK, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS

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