The Katy ISD Board of Trustees met Monday, October 23rd at the district’s board room at 6301 S. Stadium Lane for a work study meeting that included a review of proposed attendance boundary modifications for new schools opening in 2024.

The proposed attendance boundaries for Junior High School 18 and High School 10 were first presented to the board in June. The attendance zones for the junior high school are designed to relieve capacity at Haskett and Stockdick Junior High Schools, while High School 10 will primarily relieve overcrowding at Katy High and Paetow High. Both new schools are located in the northwest quadrant of the district.

A survey of those families potentially impacted by the proposed changes was conducted by the district and the results were presented to the board in September, showing a majority of respondents either supported the changes or that the changes would have no impact.

No additional changes to the original boundaries, as presented at the June meeting, were shown. The board did not vote on the proposed boundaries at Monday’s meeting but may consider the proposal as an action item at the next meeting.

Other agenda items included discussion of the district’s dual language and bilingual programs. District officials said that the Texas Education Agency requires an annual report detailing the number of bilingual students at each campus as well as the classification of the primary language in which the students are proficient. District personnel described the Emergent Bilingual (EB) enrollment in the district, citing 23,752 EB students and recommended that the district seek a Bilingual education Exception/ESL (English as a Second Language) waiver application for the 2023-2024 school year. The district is seeking an exception for programs in 16 languages, which include Arabic, Farsi, French, Russian, Cantonese, Hindi, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Urdu, Mandarin, Turkish and others. Katy ISD has sought and received such waivers for the past 22 years, presenters said.

The district is creating two pathways for language arts teachers to become ESL certified, officials said. One of the pathways offers a stipend of $1000.00 to participating teachers.

The board also heard a report on campus performance objectives.

The next regular board meeting is scheduled for October 30th.

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CAPTION FOR OPTIONAL PHOTO

Photo courtesy of Katy ISD

Katy ISD COO Ted Vierling and demographer Kris Pool review student population projections and proposed school attendance zone boundary modifications at Monday’s school board meeting.