Forney North High School Groundbreaking Ceremony This Monday

[Guest]

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[Josh]

Monday, November 5th from 5:30 to 6PM, Forney ISD is holding a groundbreaking ceremony at Forney North High School. The event is open to the community and will occur on the grounds of the future new high school, which will be located off of 548. Take 548 north of Highway 80 past Wal-Mart, the movie theater and the Steve Silver building, continue going north approximately 2 miles until you come to a sign marked "FISD Construction Entrance"; turn right at that point and proceed down the gravel road to arrive at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Major construction is expected to begin February 2008 with completion in August 2009, to open for the 2009-2010 school year, when the current Forney High School is expected to exceed its capacity.

[ranger1]

Do you have any idea what enrollment number forney turned in last friday for realignment? And do you know what the projected numbers are for when North opens?

[Josh]

Do you have any idea what enrollment number forney turned in last friday for realignment? And do you know what the projected numbers are for when North opens?

The projection is for FHS to break 2,000 students approximately August 2009. I don't know what sort of projections they've done to determine what the attendance will fall to when the new school opens - the new school is being built for 2,000 students, the same size as the current school, but I know some plans that were presented in past bond elections were for only building half the school and starting with a capacity for 1,000 students - which makes me think that they expect 1,000 or less students at Forney North in Aug '09. Especially considering that you don't start with all 4 grade levels - you usually start with just freshman or just underclassmen when you open a new high school, I don't think you'll see the attendance split 50/50 the first few years, Forney High School will remain closer to 2,000 students until Forney North has students in all grade levels.

So, if I had to take a wild and crazy guess, if they say the projections are for Forney HS to exceed capacity in August '09, and its capacity is 2,000 students, we're looking at 2,000 high school students in '09. A majority are usually underclassmen, so let's say there's 1200 underclassmen. Of those, half transfer to Forney North and the other half stay at Forney HS (again, these are wild, crazy, completely made up numbers, and aren't based on anything I've heard from the district - it's too far out to nail down specifics, honestly)...that would put Forney North at 600 students and Forney HS at 1400 students.

600 would put Forney North firmly within 3A and 1400 would keep Forney HS firmly within 4A.

So far, annual growth has been at 15-20% district-wide, meaning 800-1000 new students each school year, but that's spread out across all grade levels, of course, not just the high school.

I'm not sure what the 'official' final tally for Fall '07 came out to be, but hopefully a call to FISD or FHS tomorrow during business hours would get the answer...I'll try to remember to call them if I get a chance...if anyone else calls, feel free to post the answer here.

If you check the NCTCOG website, you'll see that FISD is maintaining their position in the top 5 fastest growing districts, behind Frisco ISD, Little Elm ISD and Melissa ISD. I'm looking to see if I can find anywhere online with the high school attendance isolated from the overall Forney ISD attendance numbers, which is what most of these reports have...

[Josh]

The most recent enrollment numbers I can find for FHS is 1443, but I believe that was last school year, not this school year.

[notfromhere]

I believe the HS turned in around 1725 and I heard HP turned in 2020 so expect the top of 4A to be within 10 of that.  On FNHS, the redistricting forums showed the campus opening with 660 for 2 grades.

[ranger1]

If HP turned in 2020, expect the cutoff to be 2021 

So by the time North is all 4 grades it will be 4a along with Forney HS. It seems likes there would be alot more people that would have to go to North with Windmill farms, Travis Ranch and the neighborhoods by the original elementary school out that way.

[Josh]

If HP turned in 2020, expect the cutoff to be 2021 

So by the time North is all 4 grades it will be 4a along with Forney HS. It seems likes there would be alot more people that would have to go to North with Windmill farms, Travis Ranch and the neighborhoods by the original elementary school out that way.

Actually, just because you live in WF doesn't mean you'll necessary go to Forney North - because of overcrowding in the elementary schools, there are students who live in Windmill Farms who don't go to the elementary school in Windmill Farms. They do all they can to balance the attendance amongst the schools, from what I've seen.

That's scary that I guessed 600 and the district estimated 660; decent wild guesses on my part, I guess. 

If the HS was 1725 in Fall of '07, then at the 15% estimated growth rate...
Fall of '08 Estimated FHS Enrollment - 1984
Fall of '09 Estimated FHS Enrollment - 2282

Meaning that Forney North will open just in time. Oh, and 1443 from '06 to 1725 in '07 would be about a 19.5% growth rate, so it sounds like the 15-20% growth rate is still holding strong.

It'll be interesting to see how long the 15%-20% growth rate holds out - Travis Ranch still had lots of land, and Windmill Farms has something like 7,500 lots left to build if they stick to the original numbers and plans. I don't really know how much land there's left to develop within city limits that's zoned residential, but the land outside of city limits should keep FISD supplied with new homes for quite some time. I'd suspect we'd see some slowing to 5-10% growth at some point out here, but it's anyone guess as to when it'll slow...