School zoning issues

The purpose of this post is to provide some "starter" information about where Centerpointe falls with respect to current public school attendance zones.   My family had to expend some effort to figure out all this stuff from scratch when we moved to this neighborhood less than a year ago (and we already lived in this district!), so I figured I might as well post it so that some of the incoming folks could maybe get a running start on deciphering their own situations.

First, the basic background:
Centerpointe is located within the Clear Creek Independent School District (CCISD), which is a wonderful, highly-rated district - in fact, it is one of the top-rated large districts in the state of Texas.  The combination of the educated local population with the concentration of engineering and science represented by the Johnson Space Center and UTMB workforces (not to mention local petrochemical and offshore service industries) has created a thriving public school system that would be the envy of much of this nation. 

However, the rapid growth brought on by economic prosperity causes changes that may be a bit disruptive in the short term.  CCISD has been challenged by a 4% to 6% annual population growth rate.  The population of League City alone has increased 68% in the past 20 years.  And of course, that growth is not geographically uniform.   The ISD must not only keep up with that growth rate, but its timing is critical: it has to open new schools exactly when they are needed, not a year before or two years after (what are new kids going to do - stand around and wait for a school to be built?). 

Therefore any changes in the rate of population growth can wreak havoc on an ISD's logistical and financial obligations.  Local news reports within the past couple of years have suggested that the abrupt reduction in the velocity of homebuilding associated with the recession posed challenges to CCISD.  That coupled with the opening of Education Village on State Highway 96 have required zoning changes and caused a bit of controversy among some parents. 

Recent zoning changes are apparent in Centerpointe's active real estate listings.  They appear to incorporate a bit of confusion and inconsistency, giving the impression that the neighborhood might be split with respect to zoning, which is not exactly true.

Some of those listings punt entirely on the zoning issue:

And some of them disavow any prediction of high school:

While others cite Clear Springs as the zoned high school:

And some of which reference Clear Creek, albeit with a different elementary school:

Of course each one of those interpretational variants comes with a big fat disclaimer:

and the same disclaimer applies to this blog post: even if what is described here is accurate as of this moment, it might change dramatically, especially given the magnitude of uncertainties surrounding public school funding issues, which started out being a relative trickle of a deficit about a year ago, but has since morphed into what might become for CCISD a forty million dollar roar, depending on how the Texas budget issues play out.      

Second, where we really stand right now in terms of zoning: 
According to the CCISD website, these are Centerpointe's current zoned schools.

Well, heck, that spreadsheet excerpt above is totally illegible, so let's show it this way:

The elementary school zoning map listed on the CCISD website as of February 5, 2011: 
Parr Elementary

The intermediate school zoning map listed on the CCISD website as of February 5, 2011: 
Victory Lakes Intermediate
But note as well that some Centerpointe kids also attend either of two Gifted and Talented (GT) regional intermediate schools:
the Webster Academy Visions in Education (WAVE) which is housed within Westbrook Intermediate School, and
the Science Magnet program, which is housed within Seabrook Intermediate School.

The high school zoning map listed on the CCISD website as of February 5, 2011:
Clear Creek High School.
Certain CCISD students can also qualify to attend the Clear Horizons Early College High School which is part of the San Jacinto College District. 

OK, so that seems fairly straightforward.  But here is where things become a bit more challenging:


This was screengrabbed from the webpage
http://www2.ccisd.net/AboutCCISD/AttendanceZones.aspx
as that webpage was shown on February 5, 2011.
It reflects changes made for the 2010-2011 school year.

I don't even want to pretend that I know the full story of what went into that little gem.  This plan is what prompted the controversy referenced above.  It basically describes how the transition between high schools will be deployed.  Because our family is a bit younger, I / we personally have not been impacted by this, so I cannot comment further on that part of it. 

Again, the information in this post is incomplete and it may not prove to be accurate as future changes are made.  Meet with appropriate representatives of CCISD if you have any questions about how zoning affects the choices available for your children.  And if I've made any mistakes or omissions here or if you've got more to add, please comment below or email me at Centerpointe.blog@gmail.com.