Update: Katy ISD has officially named new high school.
The Attendance Boundary Modification plan (ABM), presented before the Katy ISD Board of Trustees on Oct. 29, proposed that several hundred Seven Lakes High School students move to the newly created High School No. 7, starting in the 2013-14 school year.
The plan intends for approximately 500 of the current freshmen to transfer to High School No. 7 in the next school year. Current Seven Lakes High School (SLHS) sophomores and juniors living in the neighborhoods within High School 7’s proposed attendance zone may choose to be “grandfathered” and remain at their current school.
“With 3950 students in the building, it gets pretty crowded,” SLHS Principal Theodore Vierling said. “We notice it most in common areas like the cafeteria and the smaller hallways throughout the building. We also feel the pinch in the parking lot, so we don’t allow the sophomores and freshmen to park on campus – there just aren’t enough spaces.”
SLHS is currently more than 1,000 students over capacity, with approximately 4,000 total students and 1,500 sophomores alone.
“In order to bring that number down to a more manageable number, students need to be moved from Seven Lakes to High School No. 7,” district officials said in a document released on Katy ISD’s official website. “For operational efficiencies, it is best to open a new high school with somewhere between 900 and 1,000 students.”
The plan is not expected to affect current or incoming CRHS students. Growth in KISD is centered in the southwest corner of the district, and future growth is expected north of Katy High School.
“A couple of years ago, they did a little bit of rezoning with us and Taylor,” Principal James Cross said. “A couple of the neighborhoods that used to come to us went to Taylor, and a few that were going to Seven Lakes came to us. I think all of that was designed thinking ahead to this [rezoning], so they’d leave us alone and Seven Lakes would be the only school impacted.”
Current Morton Ranch High School Principal Mark Grisdale was announced as High School 7’s future principal during the October Board meeting. Grisdale has also served as an administrator at CRHS.
