photo via preservationdallas.org
Overcrowding in the Sunset High School feeder pattern prompted Dallas Independent School District officials to propose a plan that would move some students into the Adamson High School stream.
The plan, presented to parents in a meeting Wednesday night, calls for redrawing district lines so that some students who currently attend Rosemont Elementary School would move to James S. Hogg and John H. Reagan elementary schools.
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Under the proposal, students living in homes bounded by Cedar Hill Avenue, Canty, Haines and Davis would move to Hogg. Those living in the area within Polk, Vernon, Davis and 12th would move to Reagan, which feed to Hector P. Garcia Middle School and Adamson High School rather than Greiner and Sunset.
The change would result in about 100 students being funneled out of Rosemont — about 30 would move to Hogg and 70 would move to Reagan.
Guillermo and Maria Coleman, whose four children attend Rosemont, would be affected. The older two already attend the dual-language middle school academy at Rosemont and could stay. But the younger two would be moved to Reagan.
It’s unfair that Rosemont has about 420 transfer students — almost a third of the student body — but DISD is redrawing boundaries to move 100 students, says Guillermo Coleman, who also has worked as a teacher at Rosemont and Garcia.
Reagan currently is at about 85 percent capacity, and Hogg is at about 67 percent capacity. The district estimates that redrawing the map would result in Reagan growing to 100 percent capacity, and Hogg to 73 percent.
But parent Anita Hinojosa, who lives inside the few square blocks that would move to Hogg, doubts that would happen.
“They’re going to look at other schools,” she says. “People move into this neighborhood because of Rosemont. They’re not just going to put their kids in Reagan or Hogg.”
Most parents in the meeting suggested that Rosemont is the preferred school. It should be noted, however, that Reagan and Hogg are improving under principals each in their second years as heads of the schools. Hogg recently won a $10,000 technology grant, and the school has applied to become a STEAM academy. Reagan also pushes for science and technology programming.
But homeowners in the proposed redrawn districts worry their property values will drop if their homes are outside the Rosemont boundaries.
“If we wanted to send our kids to Reagan, we could’ve bought a cheaper house,” Maria Coleman says.
A volunteer committee tasked with making recommendations to the school board regarding more than 20 boundary changes throughout the district is expected to present its report Dec. 18, the day schools close for winter break. The district’s board of trustees will hear a briefing on their report Jan. 14, and the board is expected to vote Jan. 20.
