School Board Considers Abolishing Choice Program
The WFISD school board convened at a work session last Monday to decide whether or not to overhaul the choice program, the program that allows students going into the ninth grade to decide which school they want to go to.
“The discussion has been, in modifying choice,” WFISD Public Relations Officer Renee Murphy said. “Would it benefit the district to go back to attendance zones, and what would those attendance zones look like?”
The school board has not decided all of what they want to change about the choice program, but they are favoring heavy budget cuts to the busing system, which means that if students have to ride the bus to or from school, they will be assigned to the high school that is closest to them.
“It is expensive to do choice busing,” Murphy said. “I think it’s around $250,000 a year. Parents would still be able to choose which school they wanted their child to attend, but transportation may not be provided by the school district.”
The school board wants to use the money saved to enhance teacher salaries and school amenities, but teachers aren’t too optimistic.
“It wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket for teacher salaries,” science department head Patrick Tempelmeyer said. “And forcing kids to go to a certain school is not going to enhance that school.”
Tempelmeyer sees another solution instead.
“The other schools need to make themselves more competitive,” Tempelmeyer said. “Not force kids to go there.”
This is due to the fact that many students choose their school based on what it has to offer.
“I would have missed out on the fine arts program here at Rider if there had not been a choice program,” senior Carpenter Wyatt said. “And so many of the friends I’ve made.”
It is apparent that the school board has not made a final decision on how, but they have definitely decided that they want to take the district as a whole in a new direction.
“Something is going to happen,” Murphy said. “Whether it’s a change to attendance zones, a re-purposing of a school, or a closing of a school, something is going to change.”
