Opposition to the LISD Attendance Board Committee's Proposal

• The committee states that NBCD 4250 (Vista Ridge and Falcon Oaks) need to be rezoned to Bagdad Elementary to relieve Whitestone Elementary School of overcrowding.

• Vista Ridge was not represented on the Attendance Boundary Committee.

• Whitestone Elementary currently is not over-crowded with 786 kids.

• The committee states that NBCD 4400 (neighborhood behind Lowe's) needs to move all of their students to Whitestone Elementary to relieve crowding at Winkley Elementary. Currently 31 students from the ESL program attend Whitestone. This will add 39 additional students to Whitestone Elementary School.

• Whitestone still will not be functionally over-crowded with the move of the additional 39 children from NBCD # 4400. However, by moving the 150 students from the NBCD 4250 (Vista Ridge and Falcon Oaks) to Bagdad Elementary it will make Bagdad over-crowded at close to 900 children in 2011-2012, having the highest enrollment in the district. Therefore, the most-consistently lowest-rated elementary school in the district will be over-populated next school year, and the student-to-teacher ratio will be negatively impacted.

• Meanwhile, Whitestone Elementary is projected to have only 637 students for 2011-2012.

• The zoning committee's presentation disclosed that 210 students currently transfer out of Bagdad, which is higher than the number of children that live in NBCD #4250.

• Page 5 of the committee's recommendation shows that after four short years, Bagdad's enrollment will be well over capacity at a whopping 1047 students. Meanwhile, Whitestone is projected to be at only 765 students in 2015.

• LISD states that in 2015 they expect to open a new elementary school, shifting students around again and rezoning Vista Ridge once again.

• Vista Ridge Parents have made up a significant number of Whitestone Volunteers and PTA Board Members for six years, which will end if our students are moved to another school. We will not be able to reap the benefits of our hard work by leaving a school we have vested so much into.

• Vista Ridge will experience a decline in property values due to the zoning of our neighborhood to a school with a long history of poor performance

• It is not in the best interest of the children to transfer them from a school at which they are currently successful and feel safe, to a traditionally low-scoring school in a possible attempt to bolster test scores. The children of NBCD 4250 have been thriving at Whitestone. Studies show that moving children repeatedly to different schools effects their academic development, social development, sense of security and behavior.

• Simply enforcing the existing attendance zones, and not allowing an exorbitant amount of kids to transfer out, would provide relief to Plain and Whitestone, thereby avoiding the need to displace happy and thriving children from the school they are zoned for.

• The numbers just don't add up. There is still room for NBCD 4250 to stay at Whitestone!