Morningside Proposal on Rezoning Submitted to SBAC for Feb 13 meeting

Date: February 13, 2014

Alvin ISD-SBAC Committee Members of Mary Marek Elementary School

This letter is submitted to you on behalf of families of Morning Side Sub-division from which currently 24 students are attending Mary Marek.

Following the Public Forum of Monday, February 10, the parents representing Morning Side Sub-division of Shadow Creek Ranch attended the Alvin ISD Board of Trustee Meetings on Tuesday, February 11 where our lead petitioner was provided 5 minutes to share our concern with the Board members (http://www.alvinisd.net/Page/11416 at 1:00:55).

As the opportunity to meet and discuss with the Parents of students who would be affected by the current proposed rezoning was denied, a meeting of the residents of Morning Side Sub-division was held at the Conference Room of Home Depot, Pearland at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, February 12, 2014.

Collectively, we would like to express the following concerns in regard to the SBAC work:

1.       Lack of communication by the committee to the  key stakeholders, i.e. Parents and Students

2.       Lack of detail demographic data, decision criteria, and constraints, provided to the public

3.       Incorrect procedure used by the committee to choose from the  rezoning alternatives when the members should have collectively formulated the various alternatives and then make the selection

From our meeting of Wednesday, we would like to propose the following recommendations for your kind consideration and analysis.

Problems/ Challenges:

1.       Over-crowding at Marek and other elementary schools located in the Shadow Creek area

2.       Student enrollments at newly being constructed elementary school

Situational Analysis:

Mary Marek and Wilder Elementary were brought into operation to primarily serve the Shadow Creek Ranch residents that has a total houses of 599 (http://www.pearlandinfo.com/pearlandsubdivisionprofile.aspx?subdivisionid=35 ).

Over the past 3 to 4 years, several builders have constructed apartment complexes closer to these two schools that had been awarded as “Exemplary” and “Recognized” campuses. As the number of population/demographics has changed and increased because of these new constructions, the schools in the area are currently operating over its capacity.  As such providing a quality curriculum, richer educational learning experience for the young students, and a stronger parent-teacher engagement have become challenging for the school administrators.

Among all the elementary schools in Shadow Creek, the highest number of apartment units zoned is to Mary Marek.

	Apartment Complex			Telephone		Number of Units
Apartments Zoned to Mary Marek
1	The Villas at Business Center Drive			713 434 2400		560 (after acquiring neighboring
						Waterford Place)
2	The Retreat at Business Center Drive			713 436 2800		370
3	The Discovery at Business Center Drive			713 340 3100		374
4	The Alexan at Shadow Creek Pwy			713 340 2300		392
					Total	1696	(Approx.)
Apartments Zoned to  Laura Wilder
1	The Carroll			713 340 2010		400
Apartments Zoned to York
1	The Avenue			713 340 2700		350

In comparison to the single home owner families, it is safe to argue that apartment residents are:

1.       Transient in nature

2.       Per apartment unit property tax is less than the single home in Pearland area

Our Proposal:

Members of family contacted the demographers and ISD officials of Houston ISD (HISD's demographer 713-556-6734) and Fort Bend ISD to understand possible alternatives the ISD had taken in order to:

1.       Address the growing demand on local school’s (examplaries and recognized) existing capacity

2.       Alternate to providing equal access to quality education offered by ISD to the residents of single house families as well as the new, transient apartment unit families. 

3.       To protect and enhance the educational quality of existing exemplary and recognized school

We are attaching the proposal of Fort Bend ISD –Draft proposal for your reference where options include to rezone the apartment complexes to new facilities (for example, Page 3 Options 1, 2, and 3).

We believe the community (students, parents, families, and neighbors) coherence can be maintained by our proposed following options in addressing the Problems/ Challenges faced by Mary Marek.

Option 1:

Rezone all the apartment complexes built in past 4 years to the newly being constructed school (Elem # 15).

Option 2:

Evenly rezone the apartment complexes among the 4 elementary schools in the Shadow Creek Ranch area, thus reducing the capacity pressure at Mary Marek. An example to his is what Pearland ISD has done to save their exemplary schools by zoning the apartments to a farther schools. Here is an example:  

St. Andrew's Apartments on 10000 Broadway St. (518), Pearland TX 

  

St. Andrew's Apartments (http://www.apartments.com/Texas/Pearland/St-Andrews/865240) zoned to (Pearland ISD School Zone "TransFinder" websitehttp://www.pearlandisd.org/information.cfm?subpage=3601 ):

1) Massey Ranch Elementary (3900 Manvel Road, 77584): 5.0 miles/10 min. drive 

2) Sam Jamison Middle School (2506 Woody Road, Pearland 77581): 4.9 mi/ 10 min.

3) Pearland Junior High South (4719 Bailey Road, Pearland 77584): 7.1 mi/ 14 min.

4) Dawson High (2050 Cullen Blvd, Pearland)

Please note below the travel distance from the St. Andrew’s Apartment Complex to the school it is zoned to:

1) Silverlake Elementary (2550 County 90, Pearland 77584): 1.3 mi/ 5 min drive from St. Andrew's Apts

2) Silvercrest Elementary (3003 Southwyck Parkway, Pearland 77584): 1.3 mi/ 4 min.

3) Rogers Middle School (3121 Manvel Road, 77584): 3.3 mi/ 7 min.

4) Berry Miller Junior High (3301 Manvel Road, 77584): 3.9 mi/ 8 min.

The attached proposal of Fort Bend ISD has similar proposal for zoning the apartments.

Option 3:

Add new capacity (permanent or portable units) at Marek

Conclusion:

We are a community that deeply cares and love Mary Marek. Our children attend Mary Marek because we, the parents, made a conscious choice to invest in the expensive community that is zoned to Mary Marek. Besides financial investment and high annual property tax that we homeowner pay, many of our parents are involved in Mary Marek’s activities. We are hopeful our representatives will give a fair review of our proposals and would be provided with an opportunity during the SBAC meeting to the rest of the committee members. Our signed petition was submitted to Alvin ISD officials on Monday, February 10, 2014 during the Public Forum.

Any feedback and communication on the finalized proposal of rezoning to us would be highly appreciated.

Thanking your for your service and time on this important issue of ours,

Students, Parents, and Families of Morning Side Sub-division

Shadow Creek Ranch

shadowcreekranchparents@yahoo.com