We only need to win once!
The first step was the LISD to FISD redistricting petition drive. We have more than the required number of signatures on hand but have not yet made a formal request of the district. There are many nuances to the redistricting process that require careful consideration, planning, and timing. Rest assured we are pursuing our goals on all accounts.
With the 2009 LISD Board of Trustee elections, we have just formed a bloc of informed voters to promote our initiatives in state, city, and school board elections. Typically, there are very few voters in local elections and a coalition of our size CAN make a huge impact.
We are not going away!
Previous efforts have been unorganized or were single issue focussed.
- We will pursue the districting effort and any appeals that result.
- We will involve elected officials at the school, city, and state levels.
- We will create a formidable political force and maintain it until our goal is met.
- We will work for positive change in the community environment that is askew for our kids.
- We will be relentless and continue to pursue this endeavor until we win, in all venues.
- We will pursue any and all other options as they become available.
We are about community!
While our LISD status gives rise to a variety of problems (proximity to schools and extracurricular events, diminished property values, unbalanced district representation, etc.), first and foremost is the issue of community disenfranchisement. While our children value their LISD relationships, they deserve the opportunity to share and enjoy their school experience with the children from their own town. There was no coverage in Frisco media for LISD students until it was pointed out in our forums. Extracurricular events are held too far from home for any sense of real community to be developed. The greatest logistical injustice is that we have to vote in two different cities at three different locations on the same day.
Our children live and play in Frisco. They participate in performance arts and on sports teams in Frisco, and they go to the Frisco recreation centers. They do not live their lives in Lewisville, Flower Mound, Highland Village, The Colony, Carrollton, or any other city served by the LISD. Ultimately, we are largely excluded from the Frisco community and made to be outsiders in our own town.
We are Frisco residents and we don’t like living fragmented lives!
Who we are
We are Frisco is an organization started by Heritage Lakes residents Dudley & Fran Wilson and Alvin Huerta to answer the persistent and growing problems the residents of southwestern Frisco have with the lack of community provided by our current school district assignment - LISD. We have mobilized residents in Heritage Lakes, The Lakes, Lakehill, Stonebriar Village, Stonebriar Country Club Estates, The Villas, and the Sequoia Apartments. We need the participation of all residents to make it happen. We need neighborhood captains, block captains, and the Boards of all Associations involved to achieve our goals
The Classic “Bait and Switch”
Relatively new, 5A Hebron High School was on the table when most of us bought our homes. In Heritage Lakes, the third of five home building phases was just under way in 2003. We got the promised elementary school (Hicks) and there was talk of us getting our own middle school so the hour bus ride each way across two cities to Arbor Creek MS was tolerable for the time being. We have since been told we cannot support a full service middle school and just after the approval of the $697M bond package in May ‘08, we were told we are going to feed into 4A The Colony High when Hebron High reaches capacity and that it had been the plan for over a decade. Got’cha!
The Colony High is the second lowest scoring high school in LISD in critical skills like math, science, and reading. It has the fewest National Merit Scholars and has the second lowest SAT composite score in the district. This is obviously not a solution we are willing to accept, and it certainly does not repair the ongoing lack of community we experience by not going to FriscoISD schools.
We are already experiencing a mass exodus of families from either the neighborhood or the public school system when their children reach middle school age. Our attendance numbers at Hicks Elementary vs’ Arbor Creek MS vs’ Hebron High as well as personal story after personal story prove that out. Some plan their exit strategies even before their children hit first grade.
We are 2.43 sq miles out of LISD’s 127 square miles. There are 5 high schools and 14 middle schools which works out to 25 square miles per high school and 9 square miles per middle school. This apparently leaves us out in the cold for good.
Furthermore, we have great homes in great neighborhoods, but have the hardest time selling them, regardless of the current economic situation, as a direct result of our current LISD status - no middle school and a possible move to The Colony High, which would absolutely decimate our property values. Some real estate agents don’t even bother showing homes in our neighborhoods to families with school age children because of our LISD status. And, it is estimated that a move to FriscoISD would increase our property values by 15%.
We are Frisco! We are relentless!
|
