Edinburg School Overcrowding Leads to Proposed Elementary Rezoning, Possible New Schools
Photo above — Screen capture of proposed rezoning. Dr. Anthony Garza, at bottom right, presents to the ECISD Board on proposed rezoning for 12 elementaries.
Edinburg TX, June 14, 2023 — As Edinburg CISD’s student population continues to grow, overcrowding has grown at certain campuses, leading to proposed rezoning to shift student populations. However, rezoning at 12 elementaries may not be enough, and new schools may be the final answer.
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According to Dr. Anthony Garza, ECISD Assistant Superintendent for Support Services, the ideal student population for elementaries should be between 550 and 600 students. Garza and a group of 12 principals and other district staff made a presentation on the issue at the June 6th Edinburg CISD Board of Trustees meeting.
The group met four times during the last two school years to discuss the issue affecting primarily elementary campuses on the north, northeast and rural areas of the district. The group developed a proposed rezoning plan to address the issue.
Campus Current Change Proposed
Avila 714 -37 677
Crawford 687 -96 591
De Zavala 566 +39 605
Eisenhower 609 -42 567
Escandon 697 -83 614
Esparza 425 +83 508
Guerra 509 +96 605
JFK 434 +103 537
Monte Cristo 629 -51 578
San Carlos 405 +97 502
Truman 708 -39 669
Villarreal 653 -70 583
Garza went through the chart, explaining to Trustees how much each school would be impacted.
“Since most of the growth is on the north side, we to try and rezone students south. the group tried to shift students toward the South,” Garza explained.
Specifically, the shifts were: from Avila to Villarreal; from Villareal and Monte Cristo to Eisenhower: from Eisenhower to San Carlos and JFK: from Truman to Zavala; from Crawford to Guerra; and on the south side from Escandon to Esparza. While ten of the schools would be approximately within the 550 to 600 range, Avila would be at 677 while Truman would be at 669.
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Garza pointed that the incoming 5th grade students and their siblings will have the opportunity to stay at their current campus or move to the new campus. Once rezoning is finalized, parent meetings will be scheduled.
Trustee Dominga Vela voiced her concerns with the plan. “At Avila, you’re reducing by 37 students. That’s one classroom. Big deal. At Escandon by 83, maybe two classrooms, maybe three, maybe. At Truman, one classroom. Is that the optimal that we can do for these campuses?” Vela said
“At the end of the day, I am going to go back to curriculum and instruction, that it is almost impossible for these campuses to be so overloaded with students and to make any academic gains, almost impossible. You know that,” Vela stated. “In my professional opinion, es muy poquito. That’s not gonna make a dent. Why do we have Avila here? Why do we have Escandon here? Why do we have Truman here? They didn’t get anything, in my opinion. It’s still too high of a number to make an impact. We need to make an impact on these campuses. It is not fair. They have struggled, and they have done a great job in their struggle. Because I can say, personally, that none of them, not one of our 31 principals, including our area directors, have ever called me to complain about the high number of students. They just tough it up and go at it. But, if we’re in the position to un-tough it up for them and help them, then, in my opinion, I think that’s what we need to do.”
Distances To Other Schools Remains a Challenge
“I want to say that we did have those discussions,” Garza explained. That’s why we brought it up as proposed because we can still make changes and bring it back. We looked at it, and one of the things that was impacting it was having to drive students really, really far away to another school because we can do that. The superintendent and myself, we had that discussion. It’s really hard to drive them five miles away to unload them when we they live really close to it. But we can definitely look at it again.”
Board May Look At More School Construction
“When I see these numbers, I’m hearing our district, our teachers our staff, we need help,” said Trustee Luis G. Alamia. “We need more schools. I believe now that, as we go through the budget season, our staff will be able to see if we can have the funds to build more schools, especially in these rural areas where we’re getting overcrowded. But, seeing these numbers and seeing the scores that we came up with this year, it just shows the resilience of our teachers. It shows the resilience of our staff, how hard they work even when their backs are put against the wall. We as a board are doing to do everything we can to help our staff, to help our community in trying to get two or three, several schools, up as soon as possible.”
“Dr. Garza, we want to assure this community that we know we have a problem with crowded conditions” Board President Carmen Gonzalez said. “We know that. But one of the things that we have tried to work with Dr Salinas on is the fact that we cannot continue to treat these campuses with this kind of enrollment just like the campus that has three or four hundred students. We know we don’t have the rooms to accommodate the students closer to the campus because we’re trying to stay with the neighborhood concept, which is very good if you had the facilities. But since we do not have the facilities, then what are we going to do different? We cannot have just one counselor for every campus whether you have 600, 800 or 300. We need to continue working with principals. They know the needs more than anyone. And it is our responsibility, and I pledge to you to work with Dr. Salinas to deal with the needs of each individual campus based on the population that they have and the demographics of that population because your needs are different. Not every campus is the same. So, we’re going to get away, hopefully, from ‘everybody gets the same’ because you are not the same. You never have been. We’re going to go back to ‘the population drives the money’ on that campus.”
Plan Not Finalized
Garza explained that the study group would continue to meet and work on adjusting enrollment numbers. No date for another presentation or when a final plan would approved was announced. The board took no action on the matter.
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