Keep Shady Acres Kids at Sinclair Elementary

The Houston Independent School District is slated to vote on a rezoning proposal that would readjust attendance boundaries at 23 schools. HISD is attempting to reduce the number of class size waivers submitted to the state each year. The goal of the boundary change is to "decrease overcrowding while still maintaining the traditional demographic makeup of each affected school."

While the goal of the rezoning is admirable, there is one neighborhood that is being slighted by a move to a school that isn't as desirable as the school where this neighborhood is currently zoned. The proposed attendance boundaries would affect the neighborhood of Shady Acres by zoning elementary school aged children living in Shady Acres from Sinclair Elementary to Love Elementary. The area of Shady Acres affected is from the White Oak Bayou and East TC Jester on the western boundary, 610 (North Loop) on the northern boundary, Shephard on the eastern boundary, and 14th St up Beall St to 17th St on the southern boundary. Shady Acres elementary school aged children would be zoned to Love Elementary, currently rated a "D" school instead of being zoned to Sinclair Elementary, currently rated an "A-" school. As it is written, children currently attending Sinclair Elementary would be allowed to remain there, but new students in the Shady Acres area (including siblings of children currently enrolled at Sinclair) would be zoned to Love.

Principal Abigail Taylor, the Sinclair staff, PTA, and parents have worked tirelessly to improve Sinclair Elementary. They have developed trust and deep ties within the communities of Shady Acres, Timbergrove and Lazybrook. These are the three main neighborhoods whose children are zoned to Sinclair Elementary. The three communities of Shady Acres, Timbergrove and Lazybrook are deeply intertwined with each other and with Sinclair Elementary School. We want it to stay that way.

Another negative consequence of the proposed boundary adjustment on Shady Acres and the neighborhood of Oak Forest directly North of 610 North Loop and directly east of US HWY 290 is that the rezoning increases the number of hazardous zones that children must cross to reach their school. Additionally, the desirability of living in the Shady Acres neighborhood will decrease when it is rezoned to Love Elementary, a school with much lower performance than Sinclair Elementary.

There are a host of reasons for signing this petition including:
1) to keep siblings in the Shady Acres neighborhood going to the same elementary school;
2) to keep all elementary school aged children in Shady Acres zoned to a high performing school;
3) to support deep ties and relationships between the communities of Timbergrove, Lazybrook, and Shady Acres;
4) to maintain a lower number of hazardous zones that our children must cross to get to school;
5) to maintain the property value of homes in Shady Acres.