As of Oct. 4, the enrollment for Highland Park ISD is 7,022 students. Last year, that number was 6,848. That 7,000 mark — which includes more than 2,000 high schoolers — is a record for the district. Way to go, HP!
I doubt most residents (and employees) of Highland Park ISD see this as a “way to go” moment. This likely causes distress about crowded classrooms, longer queue lines, and the prospect of being placed in an athletic conference with larger schools.
@Dan. Agree, except only some people want to stay in 4A. Some want to be in 5A, or at least seemed to back in the 90’s when they wanted to build another elementary school. “If you build it [they] will come.” Another theory was SMU, who does not have eminent domain power, wanted HPISD to take land east of SMU for a school, use it for a while, and then when the enrollment bump was over, sell the land and building to SMU. Anyway, the bond measure failed.
The (hopefully) limiting factor is that there are only so many residential lots in HPISD. Has anyone ever run the numbers, even loosely, on a possible maximum? Say, three students per residential property? (I’m not saying that’s a statistically likely scenario.) Even a back-of-the envelope calculation might be instructive; it might help to know, even vaguely, where 7,000 falls as against a theoretical mathematical maximum.
What efforts are being made by the district to ensure that all of the students actually live in the district? Documentation is required to enroll a student, but does anyone ever go knock on doors to verify if the student actually lives there???
@Z, I’m sure there is more than enough homes in the HPISD district to support double the current student enrollment. We have a lot of retirees on our street whos children has long since moved off. A lot of these homes are being bought up and bull dozed in order to build larger homes…a few of them are being turned into Duplexes which house two families instead of one. So I can only imagine that HPISD will see a continued steady growth of student enrollment over the coming years.
Hopefully they don’t knock on our door anytime soon, we just moved…yes, we live in UP. Anyhow, as we read/reply to this post, PCP just posted a new blog post stating each of the HPISD K-4 elementary schools have classes with more than 22 students per teacher.
Again, the failure to plan for the future and pass the bonds for a new school back in 1997 is hurting HPISD. With land prices significantly higher, it will now be almost impossible to build a new school unless someone donates the land. Maybe that big empty lot at the intersection of Preston, Lakeside and Armstrong !
@Observer – this was not a “build it and they will come” approach. HPISD was already out of space at the elementary level in 1997, hence the plethora of portables you saw. 4A vs. 5A is not really the issue, it’s class size and support infrastructure.
Next time your visiting HP Town Hall….see if you can ask Mayor Williams about his comment to the Dallas Morning News (the voter guide – 2012). I recall he was asked “what demographic changes are happening in your town that your town council should address?” His answer: Mayor Williams: “There are no significant demographic changes taking place in our Town.”
A really good chuckle at his reply. What is/was the bigger priority….a little airplane noise or HPISD’s need for classrooms? Chasing rabbits instead of elephants.
When you google HP student-teacher ratio, the number is in the 15-1 range. I’ve never had my child in a class with less than 20 students, and the middle school was worse.
While you can’t control who lives in houses, given the increasing crowding in our schools why UP and HP allow single family houses to be knocked down and turned into multi family dwellings. I would be stunned if the majority of those dwellings aren’t an affordable way for parents to move to UP/HP and get their children into HPISD. Just makes a bad problem worse.
@XT. See foto in Elementary classes post above. 27 students in 1965. All looking fairly well behaved. Doesn’t look to be the end of the world. I bet they all survived.
@MGBHSTar. Kind of seems to me they should have been a little wiser about spending their money. If folks would carpool we wouldn’t need that monstrosity of a garage. Maybe we also didn’t need that indoor sports facility.
@ Diana, Surprisingly, my idea of success for students is not survival. They could survive with 40 kids in their class too. No, I’m looking for a class size where the teacher can actually provide some individual attention to each student in their class, rather than just trying to maintain order and make sure everyone checks the box and passes the state tests. Not fair to the teachers, and not fair to the students either.
@XT. I recognize a couple of those folks and I dare say they are quite successful.
@Dan Koller. I bet that practice facility could house a lot of class rooms.
Diana, “monstrosity of a garage”? It’s really not that big. HPHS has no surface lots. Compared to most high schools in and around Dallas, we are compact. As far as the sports training facility, face it, our community places a high value on high school sports, especially football. Our whole culture happily revolves around the Friday night lights, with hundreds of students involved through the teams, band, Belles, etc. In my mind, this has nothing to do with overcrowded elementary schools.
I also wonder if anyone is checking to see of these kids actually live at these addresses? I’ve heard several people talk about how they rent in the park cities and actually live out of the district. Also what about the Grandparents rule that grand kids can use their address if the grandparent helps take care of them. Really??? That’s crazy also they have got to stop letting builders build multiple family residences on one lot! Then They build 2, 5000 sq duplexes!
I doubt most residents (and employees) of Highland Park ISD see this as a “way to go” moment. This likely causes distress about crowded classrooms, longer queue lines, and the prospect of being placed in an athletic conference with larger schools.
@ Dan K, Agreed, wasn’t it last year the district was asking for a new school do to over crowding?
@Dan. Agree, except only some people want to stay in 4A. Some want to be in 5A, or at least seemed to back in the 90’s when they wanted to build another elementary school. “If you build it [they] will come.” Another theory was SMU, who does not have eminent domain power, wanted HPISD to take land east of SMU for a school, use it for a while, and then when the enrollment bump was over, sell the land and building to SMU. Anyway, the bond measure failed.
Dan, you got that right. Very few positives.
The (hopefully) limiting factor is that there are only so many residential lots in HPISD. Has anyone ever run the numbers, even loosely, on a possible maximum? Say, three students per residential property? (I’m not saying that’s a statistically likely scenario.) Even a back-of-the envelope calculation might be instructive; it might help to know, even vaguely, where 7,000 falls as against a theoretical mathematical maximum.
What efforts are being made by the district to ensure that all of the students actually live in the district? Documentation is required to enroll a student, but does anyone ever go knock on doors to verify if the student actually lives there???
@Z, I’m sure there is more than enough homes in the HPISD district to support double the current student enrollment. We have a lot of retirees on our street whos children has long since moved off. A lot of these homes are being bought up and bull dozed in order to build larger homes…a few of them are being turned into Duplexes which house two families instead of one. So I can only imagine that HPISD will see a continued steady growth of student enrollment over the coming years.
Hopefully they don’t knock on our door anytime soon, we just moved…yes, we live in UP. Anyhow, as we read/reply to this post, PCP just posted a new blog post stating each of the HPISD K-4 elementary schools have classes with more than 22 students per teacher.
Again, the failure to plan for the future and pass the bonds for a new school back in 1997 is hurting HPISD. With land prices significantly higher, it will now be almost impossible to build a new school unless someone donates the land. Maybe that big empty lot at the intersection of Preston, Lakeside and Armstrong !
@Observer – this was not a “build it and they will come” approach. HPISD was already out of space at the elementary level in 1997, hence the plethora of portables you saw. 4A vs. 5A is not really the issue, it’s class size and support infrastructure.
Hey Sarah,
Next time your visiting HP Town Hall….see if you can ask Mayor Williams about his comment to the Dallas Morning News (the voter guide – 2012). I recall he was asked “what demographic changes are happening in your town that your town council should address?” His answer: Mayor Williams: “There are no significant demographic changes taking place in our Town.”
A really good chuckle at his reply. What is/was the bigger priority….a little airplane noise or HPISD’s need for classrooms? Chasing rabbits instead of elephants.
When you google HP student-teacher ratio, the number is in the 15-1 range. I’ve never had my child in a class with less than 20 students, and the middle school was worse.
While you can’t control who lives in houses, given the increasing crowding in our schools why UP and HP allow single family houses to be knocked down and turned into multi family dwellings. I would be stunned if the majority of those dwellings aren’t an affordable way for parents to move to UP/HP and get their children into HPISD. Just makes a bad problem worse.
@sam: Town of HP does not equal HPISD.
Chuckles is on the case!
@XT. See foto in Elementary classes post above. 27 students in 1965. All looking fairly well behaved. Doesn’t look to be the end of the world. I bet they all survived.
@MGBHSTar. Kind of seems to me they should have been a little wiser about spending their money. If folks would carpool we wouldn’t need that monstrosity of a garage. Maybe we also didn’t need that indoor sports facility.
That indoor practice facility is about the size of an elementary school, is it not?
@ Diana, Surprisingly, my idea of success for students is not survival. They could survive with 40 kids in their class too. No, I’m looking for a class size where the teacher can actually provide some individual attention to each student in their class, rather than just trying to maintain order and make sure everyone checks the box and passes the state tests. Not fair to the teachers, and not fair to the students either.
That old Chase building is always available!
@XT. I recognize a couple of those folks and I dare say they are quite successful.
@Dan Koller. I bet that practice facility could house a lot of class rooms.
Diana, “monstrosity of a garage”? It’s really not that big. HPHS has no surface lots. Compared to most high schools in and around Dallas, we are compact. As far as the sports training facility, face it, our community places a high value on high school sports, especially football. Our whole culture happily revolves around the Friday night lights, with hundreds of students involved through the teams, band, Belles, etc. In my mind, this has nothing to do with overcrowded elementary schools.
Who says you need more land? Why not build up instead of out.
I truly think Think (dyswidt) mentioned a very possible option in going up in some cases.
@Think. Like Sideways Stories from Wayside School!
Or down. You can build half another elementary school under the Bradfield play/soccer field.
I also wonder if anyone is checking to see of these kids actually live at these addresses? I’ve heard several people talk about how they rent in the park cities and actually live out of the district. Also what about the Grandparents rule that grand kids can use their address if the grandparent helps take care of them. Really??? That’s crazy also they have got to stop letting builders build multiple family residences on one lot! Then They build 2, 5000 sq duplexes!