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After weeks of engaging with and listening to many groups and individuals, Eanes ISD understood the need to responsively revisit all possibilities. A new proposal then emerged, which honors feedback and charts a unique course for Valley View Elementary.
Based on input gained through the ThoughtExchange question about the future of Valley View (see summary linked below), we heard the following priorities:
- Keep Valley View students, staff and families together, and preserve the school’s distinctive, close-knit sense of community;
- Determine a way for Valley View students to eventually attend the school closest to their home neighborhoods;
- Address Valley View’s attendance boundaries or program reconfiguration to ultimately achieve these objectives.
Hearing these requests, we identified an alternative option comprised of three parts to attract and enroll more students at Valley View:
- Add two Spanish Immersion classrooms per grade each year at Valley View, beginning with kindergarten in 2024-25 and one grade every year thereafter;
- Accommodate more out-of-district students at Valley View, making it the default destination campus for transfers, while curtailing future transfers out of Valley View (unless siblings of current students);
- Defer long-term decisions about Valley View’s attendance boundaries or program reconfiguration to Eanes ISD’s district-wide facilities planning committee, which will begin work later this year.
We are hopeful this approach will gradually grow Valley View’s enrollment back to the level of other Eanes ISD elementary schools. More importantly, this plan respects the value we heard expressed most often by Valley View staff and families: keep the community of learners and educators together.
This renewal strategy goes into effect with the 2024-25 school year, although transitions and processes will be introduced in the second semester of this school year.
ThoughtExchange Summary and Results
October 6 EISD Board Workshop
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