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FISD approves Heritage High School zoning, hears concerns about proposed elementary zones
By Ann Marie Shambaugh, Staff Writer
If there’s one issue that makes Frisco ISD Superintendent Rick Reedy toss and turn at night, it’s rezoning. At Monday night’s regular school board meeting, he got to face the issue twice.
Reedy said rezoning is the most difficult issue to handle because a large number of parents weigh in with different opinions about an emotionally-charged issue that affects students for years. In FISD, it’s an issue that must be addressed frequently.
The board approved a rezoning plan for Heritage High School that is slightly different than the plan proposed at last month’s meeting. The new option keeps all areas zoned for Ogle Elementary School at Liberty High School and most of Elliott Elementary at Heritage High School.
“We know this rezoning is not going to please everyone,” he said.
Five parents expressed concerns about the preferred rezoning plan for Allen Elementary School, which will open in 2009. The plan is designed to relieve crowding at Sparks, Bledsoe, and Spears elementary schools.
Several parents questioned the odd shape off the zoning for Allen, which stretches from Main Street on the north to State Highway 121 on the South. It touches four other zones on its east and west boundaries.
Resident Mike Lawson said that the zoning makes it appear that the board purposely zoned a high number of apartment complexes in the Allen zone. Others said that too many apartments in a single zone will lead to instability, as apartment residents tend to move frequently.
“When you combine the odd shape of the zone and what the zone seems to accomplish by being drawn in an irregular way, and the fact that you have people very close to the school who potentially have a vested interest in not attending Allen, these are concerns that are going through a lot of residents’ minds,” Lawson said. “I haven’t heard anyone address it in a way that made me feel a lot better.”
Reedy said that the board did not intentionally zone apartment complexes into Allen, but that the board would look at the number of complexes in each zone before voting on the zone. He also said that one of the rezoning goals and considerations is maintaining diversity on each campus.
School board member Richard Beaver said that Allen zoning shape may be odd, but that the board considered the locations of future elementary school sites during the planning process. The Allen zone is expected to change as early as 2011.
“Anyone that’s been in Frisco for any period of time knows that two years is a long time not to rezone a school,” Reedy said. “I know that sounds bizarre, but it’s really that way.”
District officials said that they received nearly 40 e-mails or calls from parents about the rezoning, and that most of them were concerned with the quick expected growth of Allen, neighborhoods not wanting to leave Spears, and high traffic volume near the school.
Assistant Superintdendent for Facilities and Finance Richard Wilkinson said the district has spent more than a year working with the City of Frisco to address the heavy traffic on Legacy Drive, and he believes they have come up with a satisfactory traffic pattern.
“It was not something we drew up overnight,” Wilkinson said. “It has been a concern all along.”
The school also approved names for two future elementary and three future middle schools set to open in 2010. One elementary school will be named after Gerald Sonntag, an early Frisco pioneer and Frisco football and basketball coach. The other school will be named after Debra Purefoy, a FISD teacher for 21 years, and her husband, George Purefoy, Frisco’s city manager.
Two of the three middle schools are named in honor of former school board members, Libby Maus and Robert Cobb. The third middle school’s namesakes are Lamar and Norma Hunt. Norma Hunt taught at Richardson High School, and her husband, Lamar, helped merge the AFL and NFL and worked to bring Pizza Hut Park to Frisco.
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