Future Attendance Zoning: Tarvin Elementary and ES 29

Thoughtexhange survey is now open for feedback on the ES28A, ES29A elementary school attendance boundary scenarios.

Leander ISD is working to rezone elementary schools for the opening of Tarvin Elementary School in August 2021 (currently under construction near the Palmera Ridge subdivision off Ronald Reagan Blvd. in Leander) and Elementary School 29 in August 2022 (planned for the Bryson subdivision near 183A and south of TX-29 in Leander). ES 29 is expected for the 2022-23 school year but has not been approved for construction as we monitor enrollment growth and state public school funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The district is also considering changes to our zoning for assignments for bilingual services.

The Board of Trustees approved a charter setting the parameters and process for approving a change, collecting community feedback, and prioritizing the elements for a new plan.

Priorities for Zoning

Earlier in the year, families and staff shared their priorities for making a zoning change to school attendance areas. That report found the following themes for our charter.

1. School Size – relieve overcrowding, reduce class sizes and student-to-teacher ratios
2. Proximity – keep students as geographically close to their assigned school and keep neighborhoods together
3. Minimize Change – minimize rezoning a student multiple times within the same school level
4. Feeder Patterns – keep students together as they transition to the next level (elementary to middle school, middle to high school)

Additional Resources

• Contact Us
• Neighborhood Codes: By Subdivision (opens in a new window)| By Street

• 2021–22 Enrollment Projections by Neighborhood Code(opens in a new window)
• Demographic Update(opens in a new window)
• Attendance Zoning FAQ
• Zoning Process Flow Chart

Scenarios 28A and 29A

Exercises and Scenario Naming

For each new campus, we create exercises to look at different potential catchment areas and study their impact. Once our team identifies the exercise that we feel is most aligned with the attendance zoning charter, that exercise becomes the scenario for consideration. That scenario then becomes the base, or foundation, for the next new campus exercise(s). For reference, any scenario published for consideration for Tarvin Elementary School will begin with the number 28, and any scenario published for consideration for Elementary 29 will begin with the number 29. 

In order to be as transparent as possible, we are publishing the PDFs to our zoning exercises to show our work.

Summary of the Scenarios

We completed three different exercises to relieve enrollment at Akin, Parkside, and Pleasant Hill Elementary Schools with the zoning scenario 28A. Scenario 29A relieves enrollment at Larkspur and Plain Elementary Schools.

Our biggest challenge is to address the conflict between priorities 1 (School Size) and 3 (Minimize Change). Neighborhood codes (NBCDs) 1675 and 1680 (Cold Springs and Hazlewood neighborhoods) were rezoned to Akin Elementary School from Pleasant Hill Elementary School in 2017. Scenario 28A moves them back to Pleasant Hill in 2021. These neighborhoods were also moved from Stiles to Wiley during the middle school rezoning in 2020.

Overview Scenario 28A

• School Size
  • Opening Tarvin ES with an efficient enrollment
  • Provides some crowding relief at Parkside ES, Pleasant Hill ES, and Akin ES
• School Size: Akin ES maintains a healthy enrollment for future years.
• Proximity: To provide relief to Akin, NBCDs 1675 (Cold Springs) & 1680 (Hazlewood), projected to have 248 elementary students in 2021-22, had a close alternative school with capacity (Pleasant Hill Elementary) which also provides potential future stability to NBCDs 1675 and 1680.
• Feeder Pattern: 
  • Middle School feeder percentages better aligned due to 1675 and 1680 moving to Pleasant Hill ES which feeds Wiley MS.
  • Tarvin ES will feed Danielson MS (30%), Stiles MS (39%) and Wiley MS (31%) until MS 10 opens in 2024-25.

Students Moved in Scenario 28A

NBCD	FROM	TO	#
1680	Akin	Pleasant Hill	113
1675	Akin	Pleasant Hill	135
1205	Parkside	Tarvin	56
1245	Parkside	Tarvin	134
1200	Parkside	Tarvin	32
1180	Pleasant Hill	Tarvin	95
1185	Pleasant Hill	Tarvin	6
1210	Pleasant Hill	Tarvin	2
1230	Pleasant Hill	Tarvin	126
1260	Pleasant Hill	Tarvin	16
1320	Pleasant Hill	Tarvin	34
1175	Pleasant Hill	Tarvin	66

Overview Scenario 29A

• School Size
  • Opening ES 29 with an efficient enrollment (under capacity)
  • Provides crowding relief to Larkspur ES and Plain ES
  • Plain ES will get additional relief with ES 32 opening in 2024-25 
• School Size: Larkspur ES maintains a healthy enrollment for future years.

Feeder Pattern: Middle School feeder percentages for ES 29, Larkspur ES and Plain ES are 100% to Danielson MS.

Students Moved in Scenario 29A

NBCD	FROM	TO	#
1100	Larkspur	ES 29	131
1105	Larkspur	ES 29	166
1115	Larkspur	ES 29	105
1120	Larkspur	ES 29	65
1150	Plain	ES 29	211

Exercises showing impact to future elementary schools

The administration also looked at possible catchment areas for ES 30 and ES 31, projected to open 2023-2024. These exercises were used in combination with each ES 28 exercise (Exercise 28_A1 – Exercise 30_A1, Exercise 28_A2 – Exercise 30_A2, Exercise 28_A3 – Exercise 30_A3) to study their impact on the potential future ES 30 and 31. ES 30 and 31 exercises are not scenarios for consideration and are only being used to show potential catchment areas.