Meeting with Alvin ISD Director of Communications, Daniel Combs

I wanted to take this opportunity to inform you about a meeting that took place on 15-May-2012 between some SCR area parents and an official with Alvin ISD. The reason for the meeting was to discuss the need for an SCR area High School and what Alvin ISD is planning for our area.

Here are some nuggets that I took away from the meeting:

1. Alvin ISD has purchased the land necessary to house a high school for our area. This land is across Kirby from Pearland Town Center and it was purchased as a result of a bond election in 2009.
2. There are currently two high schools in Alvin ISD: Alvin High School and Manvel High School. SCR area children currently attend Manvel High School, which as you may know if approximately 10 miles from Shadow Creek Ranch. 
3. Alvin ISD has no current plans to build a new high school. We were told that a Citizens Advisory Council this past year determined that there was not enough district wide support necessary to pass a bond election to build a new high school. As a result, this issue cannot be presented to voters during this fall’s election.
4. We were told that the following process must be followed:
a. Citizens Advisory Council determines support in the district to pass a bond.
b. Bond is issued by Alvin ISD.
c. Bond is passed by Alvin ISD electorate.
d. SCR area high school is then designed and built (two year process best case scenario). 
5. After speaking with several Alvin ISD board members, it is my understanding that the soonest a high school could open its doors to the children of our community would by 2016-2017 and that is if we can get the bond on next year’s (2013) ballot.
6. This year, Manvel High School has 2,150 students. Every year, Nolan Ryan sends approximately 350 students to Manvel High School. If you do the math, then the SCR area children make up more than ½ the population. By the way, Alvin ISD was very excited to announce that in 2012/2013 Manvel High School will be a 5A school.
7. Manvel High School was built for a capacity of 2,500 students. The district seems prepared to argue that they can support several hundred more students with temporary buildings.

I believe that an SCR area high school will be beneficial for our entire community as a whole. I also believe that our children will be much better served by a more local high school that will be more accessible to them – from a basic to and from perspective and from the ability to fully participate in extra-curricular activities. Additionally, an SCR area high school will promote our property values and the community as a whole in a variety of ways.

Update

Because of the high turnout and passion demonstrated at last week’s meeting, the Alvin ISD official has communicated that there will be a meeting with the Alvin ISD Superintendent during the first few weeks of June.

Call to Action:

• If you are interested in helping drive this effort, please reply to me and I will add you to an email distribution list, which I will use to communicate upcoming meetings with the school districts, milestones, a possible petition drive, etc.
•  Please forward this post to your neighbors and invite them to reply to me and join the distribution list.
•  Please make every effort to attend meetings that will be communicated – they are responding to numbers.