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:
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
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
