From the cover
Magnolia ISD redraws elementary boundaries
Current elementary boundaries
What’s happening?
Magnolia Parkway
Magnolia
Bear Branch
New boundaries are expected to go into e ect in August. “While creating these zones, we tried to look further than just next year,” said Deanie Murry, MISD’s long-range planning coordinator. “We want to give relief to other campuses for several years to come until we need another bond in the future.” Meyers said the proposed attendance zones will a ect approximately 980 students across the existing boundaries for Williams, Magnolia, Magnolia Parkway and Smith elementary campuses, with the majority of students coming from neighborhoods in Audubon and the central corridor of the district. “The opening of Audubon Elementary will help alleviate the overcrowding that is happening in the central part of the district while also balancing enrollment across the district. The proposed map is based on guiding principles and the idea of not having elementary students move multiple times during their primary years,” Superintendent Todd Stephens said.
Magnolia ISD started the rezoning process of elementary school boundaries in September in anticipation of the opening of Audubon Elementary in August, the rst new elementary campus to open in the district since 2005 at which time elementary boundaries last changed. Audubon is a part of the $232 million bond voters approved in 2022, which also includes funds to build new intermediate and junior high schools. District o cials said the three new schools will help MISD address the continued growth of the district. As of the fall 2022-23 semester, a total of 5,353 students were enrolled across MISD’s eight elementary campuses. A 10-year forecast by Templeton Demographics in 2023 predicts enrollment at the elementary level will grow to over 8,000 students by 2032, an increase of 51.54%. Denise Meyers, executive director of communications, said the proposed elementary school boundaries will be brought to the board for consideration Dec. 11.
249
Ellisor
1488
Williams
Ellisor
1774 Magnolia
Smith
Lyon
Nichols Sawmill
N
Proposed elementary boundaries
Magnolia Parkway
Audubon
Bear Branch
249
Ellisor
Williams
1488
Ellisor
1774
Nichols Sawmill
Magnolia
Smith
Lyon
N
Audubon Elementary
SOURCE: MAGNOLIA ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
10-year forecast for elementary campuses A 2023 demographic study predicts several elementary campuses will exceed capacity without redrawing boundaries to populate Audubon Elementary.
A closer look
expected to be within 10% of capac- ity by 2025-26 followed by Magnolia Elementary reaching capacity in 2027-28. In a perfect world, Meyers said dividing the 5,600 elementary students by nine elementary schools would place 622 kids per campus. However, enrollment projections do not include special programs, such as special education and bilingual programs, which are concentrated at certain campuses. Zooming out, the district is expected to reach a total enrollment of more than 17,200 students by the 2026-27 school year and more than 22,000 students by 2031-32, accord- ing to the demographic study.
According to a district housing overview by MISD, there are 22,878 future lots identified in neighbor- hoods currently zoned to Magnolia Elementary, followed by Magnolia Parkway with 7,950 lots and Wil- liams with 3,519 future lots. Enrollment capacity at every elementary school is 900 students, according to data from the district. As of Sept. 8, Williams Elemen- tary had 856 students enrolled, Magnolia Elementary had 689 students, and Magnolia Parkway had 846 students. By the 2025-26 school year, Magnolia Parkway and Williams are projected to reach over 1,000 students, according to the demographic study. Cedric Smith Elementary is
2,000
Magnolia Parkway Williams Magnolia
Campus capacity is 900 students.
1,500
1,000
Lyon Smith
500
0
SOURCES: MAGNOLIA ISD, TEMPLETON DEMOGRAPHICS/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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