Circle C North

I've been hearing the same misconception repeated from some of my Circle C North neighbors about moving to Kiker.  And it is simply this:  "Why are you moving us from one overcrowded school to another?"

Let me explain how this is not the case.

What is overcrowded?
AISD staff considers a school to be overcrowded when the ratio of membership (actual students in the school, including transfers) to permanent capacity (the number of students the school was built for) exceeds 115%.   Mills is currently at 1078 students, or 129% of permanent capacity.  Mills has been "overcrowded" or above 115% capacity since the 2007-2008 school year.

What is ideal?
Getting the right level of capacity depends a lot on what kind of neighborhood you're talking about. For the new SWES, the ideal level of capacity is much different than an existing neighborhood like Kiker, because construction is still ongoing in the neighborhood around the new school, so the demographer expects it to quickly expand its student numbers. 

Kiker is what they consider an established neighborhood, where all the houses have been built, and growth has slowed, if not reversed.  For these established neighborhoods (like Kiker and Mills) AISD staff says capacity should be between 105-110%.

Without any new students, Kiker is projected to have only around 682 students, or 84% of it's permanent capacity.   So, clearly it could benefit from additional students, especially since the demographer projects that the neighborhood will not grow in the number of elementary school students over the next five years. 

Moving Vintage Place and Circle C North to Kiker, brings Kiker up to 863 students or 106% of their capacity of 816 students.  Comparitively, under the current plan, Mills stays at 897 students or 107% of its capacity of 836 students.  So, the schools are about the same size in terms of capacity and will have similar number of students.  So, we're balancing the schools, not overcrowding one in favor of the other.

Students who will be moving to Kiker, including my own, will be transitioning from a school with 1100 students to a school with less than 900.  If you've been at Mills a while, we haven't seen those numbers since before 2004. 

What will next year really be like?
One other thing to think about.  Although this has not been decided yet, it's likely that the boundary task force will approve transfers for incoming 5th graders and their siblings (what's known as grandfathering).  The district typically allows the students entering the final grade level of the school to have the option of staying for their final year.  I would project (we haven't been given exact figures on this) a grandfathering plan to impact the number of students moving from Mills to Kiker next year, perhaps as much as 10% of the 181 students, which will lower the capacity at Kiker for next year.

I want to thank the Kiker boundary representatives for their willingness to work with us during this process.  In addition, if this plan is approved by the task force and moves on to the Board of Trustees, Lisa and I will work with the Kiker representatives to set up a transition meeting with the Kiker administration for incoming parents.  The good news is that they know how to perform this kind of transition - they absorbed most of Clayton's kindergarten class this year, with few problems.