Best feeder school list in West Plano (Dallas, Murphy: neighborhood, buy)

[DitsyD]

Originally Posted by fastfingers33

I've heard something like Skagg and Rice use to feed into Frisco ISD. How does it work when Skagg gets rezoned to plano west? Did I hear it wrong when certain school gets rezoned to different district? I can't imagine a curriculum change when school gets rezoned.

No Plano school has ever been zoned to Frisco ISD. Getting schools moved from one district to another is possible, but there are so many hoops to jump through that it is next to impossible. You have to get voters in both districts to agree to it, after getting the ISDs to agree to it. No district wants to lose tax revenue OR school properties, so I can't imagine a district actually agreeing to such a move.

[BayTexan]

I would recommend you do a search on this forum - you will find a lot of useful information that answers most of your questions.

Skaggs and Rice were never part of Frisco! The rezoning that happened in 2011/2012 (in PISD) was that Jasper High school (which Rice Middle (and Skaggs, Andrews, Wyatt elementaries) feeds into) was rezoned from Plano Senior to Plano West. Jasper is widely regarded as the most competitive and best academic high school in Plano - so, you can draw your inferences on the impact of its' move from Plano Senior to West (i.e. West got all the brainiacs from Jasper :-)). Plano is mostly built out so there is a low probability of further rezoning (as opposed to Frisco where a new school comes up each week it seems (anecdotally, some of my friends have had their kids attend 3 schools in 4 years!)).

Teacher quality alone does not dictate education quality right - you may have a perfectly good teacher who is not on the same wavelength as your child - think about what happens there. All schools have good teachers and not so good teachers. As you can see from all the responses in this thread, the biggest differentiator is the demographics of the school (and the peer group aspect). At the elementary level, Mathews has similar demographics to Skaggs and Andrews. It starts differing at the Middle school level (Rice is more Asian than Schimelpfenig) and gets even wider as you hit Jasper (vs. Clark - look up the demographics yourself on GreatSchools.org). Also, like I said above, Plano Senior will definitely see a hit in their metrics (SAT, % of National Merit scholars etc.) given the move of Jasper to Plano West.

All in all, they are all good schools. It depends on what you are looking for and how your child learns. At the end of the day, the teacher and school don't do it all - the child and parent do!

[MurphyPl1]

I want to make it clear that Plano West is a senior high in Plano ISD. It is not it's own district. There are 3 clusters in PISD with one senior high in each. Schools may be rezoned within those clusters and into other clusters. Altho after the last major realignment it's not likely that anything beyond elementary will be rezoned. Although individual neighborhoods may still shift as well.

[coltseaver]

And the OP doesn't even have kids? There has been talk of a 4th Senior High and (presumably) respective cluster for years, and both schools on the west side are busting at the seams. Not sure any of this is even going to be relevant.

[DitsyD]

Originally Posted by coltseaver

And the OP doesn't even have kids? There has been talk of a 4th Senior High and (presumably) respective cluster for years, and both schools on the west side are busting at the seams. Not sure any of this is even going to be relevant.

Plano is pretty well built out, so I don't see a fourth cluster happening. They might do another rezoning, but since there are still scars from the last one I doubt it happening any time soon.

I don't understand your "...both schools on the west side..." comment. There are many more schools than two on the west side. Which two are you commenting on?

In fact, the largest elementary school is on the EAST side, Boggess Elementary has 857 students. The second largest middle school is also on the EAST side, Murphy Middle has over 1200 students and parents were told they are only 20 students away from being the largest PISD middle school.

[bencronin04]

Originally Posted by DitsyD

Plano is pretty well built out, so I don't see a fourth cluster happening. They might do another rezoning, but since there are still scars from the last one I doubt it happening any time soon.

Highland Park has been built out for decades and they have to keep adding portables and expanding schools. Now they are going to build a new elementary. If Plano get's the the same type of demand, which I don't think will happen, you'll see more and more town homes, multi family units, large lots being split, etc.

[Big G]

Don't think WILL happen??

It IS happening, and you are seeing exactly what you list - lots of new townhomes and multi-family units. The enormous complex that just opened on Parker/Tollway is just the start of what's going to be a clown car of new housing crammed into the limited space available for build.

[TheOverdog]

just the start of what's going to be a clown car of new housing crammed into the limited space available for build.

Good. Most of the open land left in Plano wasn't even worth fencing to put a cow on before. It needs to be built into something people can use instead of just having to drive by it to somewhere else.

[MurphyPl1]

I do not believe there will ever be a 4th cluster or a 4th Senior High. The current board, and the previous 2 superintendents were not in support of that.

The last bond election included another elementary school to be built in Parker. PISD even owns the land for it. But the message given by the board is that PISD is done building schools, including scrapping that slated elementary. The plan is to expand existing schools like they did with Hunt and Boggess to address the growth in Murphy and Parker. And there is definitely enough growth in the east cluster to justify another school.

[DallasG]

This puzzles me, until yesterday everyone was complaining about lack of children in Plano and predicting shrinkage or demise of PISD. Ever since I moved to DFW, which was 20 years ago, I keep hearing about imminent doom of Plano and Coppell but all I see is progress.