Plano has the largest graduating class in the US - Why is that? (Southlake: house, high school)

[DitsyD]

Originally Posted by PanTerra

Distinct from its high school, in 1975? I do recall a Plano, and a Plano West or was it East, LOL. Am I remembering that wrong as well?

Plano Senior High School, with only 11th & 12th grades, opened in 1975.

Plano East Senior High School opened in 1981.

Plano West Senior High School opened in 1999.

When Plano Senior High opened, Plano High School ceased to exist as such, and the building was renamed Williams High School and housed only 9th and 10 graders.

[PanTerra]

Originally Posted by tyanger

Seriously though. What is the confusion?

PISD has 3 senior highschools (West Senior,(central) Senior, East Senior) that have only 11th and 12th grades. They have completely separate highschools that only have 9th and 10th grades. They are physically separate facilities with completely separate locations and different addresses. I can see how it is a little confusing at first, but that is the way they have the schools set up. You could call one chicken soup and the other pot pie if you'd like, but one level still has only 11/12th grades and the other only 9th/10th. It's not that difficult.

Condescension noted, thanks. You're a little late in your explanation, the confusion has already been cleared up a few posts ago. Thanks for playing.

[Lakewooder]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

From UIL website, enrollments for 2010-2012 period:

5A Schools:

Plano East 6171

Plano 5240
Allen 5049

Dallas Skyline 4765
Plano West 4190

South Grand Prairie 3940
Duncanville 3869
Lewisville 3573
Arlington Martin 3263
Irving MacArthur 3191
Lewisville Flower Mound 3170
Arlington Bowie 3160
Lewisville Marcus 3107
Irving Nimitz 3090
Coppell 3064
Euless Trinity 3063

Arlington 2962
McKinney Boyd 2948
Arlington Lamar 2937
Irving 2913
Hurst Bell 2888
Arlington Houston 2870
Mesquite 2869
Lewisville Hebron 2857
Grand Prairie 2840
Keller 2839
Keller Central 2756
De Soto 2750
Richardson Berkner 2723.5
Garland 2714
Garland Rowlett 2634
Cedar Hill 2593
Haltom City Haltom 2586
Garland Sachse 2560
Southlake Carroll 2513

Garland Naaman Forest 2453
Richardson 2410
North Mesquite 2404
Dallas Sunset 2369
Colleyville Heritage 2328.5
Mesquite Horn 2314.5
Richardson Lake Highlands 2281
Dallas White 2257
North Garland 2256
Keller Fossil Ridge 2168.5
Grapevine 2167
South Garland 2096
Garland Lakeview Cent 2089
Dallas Samuell 2075

4A Schools:
Carrollton Creekview 2062.5
Wylie 2061
Rockwall 2045
Carrollton Turner 2014
McKinney 2000

Carrollton Smith 1992
Richardson Pearce 1965.5
Rockwall-Heath 1965
Lewisville The Colony 1935
Highland Park 1903
Dallas Adams 1877
Arlington Seguin 1824
Keller Timber Creek 1762
West Mesquite 1756
Lancaster 1735
Frisco Wakeland 1714
Dallas Molina 1709
Frisco Liberty 1641
Frisco Centennial 1620
Forney 1588
Wylie East 1554.7

Dallas Spruce 1498
Mesquite Poteet 1496
Little Elm 1487
North Dallas 1475
McKinney North 1446
Frisco 1443
Dallas Jefferson 1422
Dallas Wilson 1399
Dallas Kimball 1390
Frisco Heritage 1385.8
Dallas Carter 1365
Dallas Adamson 1360
Dallas Conrad 1313
Dallas South Oak Cliff 1219
Dallas Hillcrest 1196
Dallas Seagoville 1153
Dallas Pinkston 1128
Dallas Lincoln 1015


3A Schools:
Lucas Lovejoy 946
North Forney 904
Prosper 870
Carrollton Ranchview 833
Princeton 797
Dallas Madison 773
Dallas Roosevelt 758
Frisco Lone Star 719.53
Dallas Hutchins 715

Celina 558
Anna 535.5
Van Alstyne 439

Woodrow (Wilson) has gone from 1399 to 1600 plus since becoming an IB World School - even though we have a 40,000 square foot science/performing arts addition under construction, I think that's too big! Of course we are very unusual - a small town high school in the big city. To me, it just works better as a smaller school where everyone knows everyone, many students have parents who attended the school and know each other/had the same teachers, etc. Another thing I like which differs from Plano is that 9th graders are friends with the 12th graders - who actually mentor them..they participate in extracurricular activities with each other...BTW we had 800 AP exams last year.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by Big G

Well, for those who haven't consumed the Flavor-Aid, it's not all that obvious.

While the rest of the world uses the terms "high school" and "senior high" interchangably, they have separate, distinct meanings in PISD.

High School = 9/10; Senior High = 11/12.

(FWIW, Plano is probably the only place on earth where those terms have those particular interpretations.)

---

Edit: I stand corrected. Southlake runs their schools on the same split, with the same distinction in terms.

I was gonna say, Carroll ISD does the same thing, but with only one school for grades 9-10 and the other for 11-12, rather than 2 feeding into one.

FWIW, New Trier High School (in Chicago's North Shore 'burbs) does a similar thing. The entire school is called "New Trier High School", but there is one campus for grades 9-10 and another (some distance away) for grades 11-12. IIRC, there used to be "New Trier East" and "New Trier West", then one campus was closed when enrollment dropped. When the number of kids picked up again, the decision was made to keep the one open campus as the "senior" campus and reopen the other one for grades 9-10. There were a few issues that led this decision, which included the fact that "New Trier" had established a certain cache so they didn't want to rezone and have parents complain that their kids would not go to the "real" New Trier, plus it helped the school's sports programs compete at a very high level (likely similar to why Carroll has their system in place).

(FYI, New Trier is in a very affluent area and has metrics similar to or better than those of HPHS. For example, the average ACT of the class of 2011 was 27.5 and virtually every student takes the ACT, although TC80 would probably point to superior AP test results for HPHS students. NMSF are ~2.5% of student body. Main point is that it's another "high performing school with very affluent student body". Average graduating class size is ~1,100, smaller than the Plano schools but larger than Carroll or HPHS.)

[TX75007]

The drop out rate in PISD is very low as well. Some of the larger districts might challenge plano if they had less of a dropout rate.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

From UIL website, enrollments for 2010-2012 period: (list truncated for reason that will be obvious on reply)

5A Schools:


Richardson Berkner 2723.5
Colleyville Heritage 2328.5
Mesquite Horn 2314.5
Keller Fossil Ridge 2168.5

4A Schools:
Carrollton Creekview 2062.5
Richardson Pearce 1965.5
Wylie East 1554.7
Frisco Heritage 1385.8

3A Schools:
Frisco Lone Star 719.53
Anna 535.5

Wow, so many schools with only a partial kid attending! I hope the other whole students help them out!

(BTW TC80, thanks for the info).

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

Wow, so many schools with only a partial kid attending! I hope the other whole students help them out!

(BTW TC80, thanks for the info).

I think the UIL must take the exact enrollment per day (or semester?) to calculate enrollment. I thought that was funny, too, but it does make a difference if that .5 student pushes your school up into the next "A" group for athletic competition reasons.

[Lakewooder]

Also Lake Highlands High has a Freshman Center instead of putting the ninth graders in high school.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Also Lake Highlands High has a Freshman Center instead of putting the ninth graders in high school.

Allen ISD does the same thing as far as a 9th grade center, currently located in the old Allen HS building.

Frisco ISD has done the opposite of Plano, they do not want higher than a 4A school. With half the population of Plano, Frisco has twice as many high schools: Frisco, Centennial, Wakeland, Liberty, Heritage and Lone Star.

McKinney ISD was set to model Frisco but recently proposed expanding McKinney and McKinney North to 5A size schools as a much less expensive alternative to adding a fourth high school. McKinney Boyd is already 5A.

[Lakewooder]

Frisco High school expansions will provide opportunities | Dallas-Fort Worth Communities - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

"The plan, developed about two years ago, will help the district increase each high school’s capacity by 300 students, providing space for 2,100 students at each campus. The move is expected to accommodate the district’s growth for the next four to five years, during which the district expects to receive an additional 3,000 students at each school. It will also save the district from opening another campus in addition to Independence High School, which is scheduled to open in 2013 at an estimated cost of $64 million"