Fort Bend ISD To Rezone Entire District

[Chris]

The Fort Bend Independent School District is in the process of rezoning the entire district. Many parents and community members are against some of the newly proposed plans. The district has several overcrowded schools and will be rezoning hundreds of students.

Fort Bend ISD Rezoning Proposal Story found on HCN Online

[hbcu]

As a FBISD grad....I honestly don't care about what goes on Highway but the district hates when schools in the Eastern Half closer to Houston accomplish things that make their Sugar Land schools look bad.

FBISD messed with Willowrige in the early 90s and broke up the most successful school in the city of Houston at the time. Willowridge received all the athletic press, had the best band in the state and surpassed one of the Highway 6 schools in TEAMS testing during that period. There was neighborhood pride in the school system which is hard to find now...

The district started the madness by rezoning Quail Run, which is 2 miles away from Willowridge, to Dulles which was 10 miles away for reasons unknown The next year, they continued and moved every neighborhood on 2234 to Dulles. Year after that, they mess with Willowridge again and send Hunters Glen III, IV and V way across the district to Elkins which again makes no sense when a kid has to be up at 6:15 to catch the bus.

Ridge never was overcrowded so the reasons behind this were never public but it does not take a genius to see what the school board folks were doing. And lo and behold.....once Thurgood Marshall they send ALL the kids back to this side of the district and Willowridge's enrollment has continued to drop to Class 4A numbers.

FBISD never thought wisely and built its schools large enough to handle growth.....

[VicMan]

HBCU, have the people who live in the Fort Bend part of Houston secede and join HISD (I am serious about this!). Willowridge can then handle some extra kids from Madison, as the Madison HS area is growing.

[Chris]

What Fort Bend ISD needs id to have a Bond Program to build atleast 1-2 new High Schools, 2-4 Intermediate Schools and about 6-8 Elementary Schools to handle the growth instead of bouncing students from one school to another.

[VicMan]

What Fort Bend ISD needs id to have a Bond Program to build atleast 1-2 new High Schools, 2-4 Intermediate Schools and about 6-8 Elementary Schools to handle the growth instead of bouncing students from one school to another.

I also agree with this - FBISD needs to build two high schools to relieve Elkins and Hightower.

[Trae]

As a FBISD grad....I honestly don't care about what goes on Highway but the district hates when schools in the Eastern Half closer to Houston accomplish things that make their Sugar Land schools look bad.

FBISD messed with Willowrige in the early 90s and broke up the most successful school in the city of Houston at the time. Willowridge received all the athletic press, had the best band in the state and surpassed one of the Highway 6 schools in TEAMS testing during that period. There was neighborhood pride in the school system which is hard to find now...

The district started the madness by rezoning Quail Run, which is 2 miles away from Willowridge, to Dulles which was 10 miles away for reasons unknown The next year, they continued and moved every neighborhood on 2234 to Dulles. Year after that, they mess with Willowridge again and send Hunters Glen III, IV and V way across the district to Elkins which again makes no sense when a kid has to be up at 6:15 to catch the bus.

Ridge never was overcrowded so the reasons behind this were never public but it does not take a genius to see what the school board folks were doing. And lo and behold.....once Thurgood Marshall they send ALL the kids back to this side of the district and Willowridge's enrollment has continued to drop to Class 4A numbers.

FBISD never thought wisely and built its schools large enough to handle growth.....

So why were they doing it?

[hbcu]

honestly.....The band went to the Rose Bowl, featured over 300 members...received MAJOR press in 1993 and 1994 for it....Channel 11's Jerome Gray traveled to the parade and did a weeklong segment....those folks at Clements and all points north near the Administration Building hated their kids weren't getting the same press. The football team won 10 district titles in a row at the time, the hoops team won state, track was always tough and mostly every football player received Division I scholarships....When Ridge surpassed Kempner I think in Teams Math Testing that was the final straw...

I grew up WANTING to be a Willowridge Eagle..these kids now din't give a rat's azz about their schools...

the best way to break success up is to start with a small group of parents and make promises to them..they figured people aren't going to come out in masses so the board cut a side deal with them for Thurgood but for it to happen they needed to rezone. They've killed Willowridge and were successful but what they also did which wasn't right was put alot of kids at jeopardy when they went to these other schools. The teachers didn't care about them the way they did at Willowridge. I know so many folks who got lost in the cards at Dulles and Elkins as a result. One parent who fought for it admitted to me once that was the worst mistake he ever made was letting his kids go to Elkins.

One proposal on the table was to rezone Hightower and send Teal Run to Willowridge which would relieve Hightower. They tell me it caused an uproar......Teal Run is nothing but former HISD and FBISD students but now they think they're too good for their own kind. Pitiful.