Martinez Elementary opens next fall
HUTTO — The Hutto Independent School District board prepared for the opening of its newest elementary school by discussing adjustments to attendance zones at its meeting Thursday, Dec. 12.
Lee Martinez Elementary School opens in fall 2025 to handle a growing student population.
Among other issues, the domino effect of debuting a new school and changing
attendance zones, which often affects families with multiple children at different campuses, has to be considered — including “grandfather” and sibling-attendance policies, trustees said.
Grandfathering and sibling-attendance rules make provisions for pupils to stay in a current attendance zone for an additional period.
“This is one of the most complicated decisions that we make because no matter what, there’s fifth-grade parents that want something, there’s middle school parents that don’t want to switch,” board President Billie Logiudice said. “Like, no matter what decision, there’s going to be somebody that’s impacted in a way that they wish wasn’t that way.”
A final proposal will go before the board in January.
During this week’s session, Assistant Superintendent of Operations Dustin Barton presented potential new attendance zones to trustees and asked for their views.
Since October, Barton and Superintendent Jeni Neatherlin have been working with the Attendance Rezoning Committee, which consists of 28 parents, four of whom were nominated by school-board members and 24 nominated by each campus’ administration — two for each of the 12 schools.
The Martinez zone will take over the northern and northeastern areas of Hutto and Veteran Hill elementary school’s current zones, respectively.
For the preexisting campuses, the entirety of the Legends of Hutto neighborhood will attend Nadine Johnson Elementary School instead of splitting its population with Hutto Elementary, as the Cotton Brook neighborhood population will now attend the school rather than Ray Elementary School.
Kerley and Howard Norman elementary schools will not have changed boundaries.
The proposed zones are viewable on the Hutto ISD website, hipponation.org/ bond2023/elementary-attendance- rezoning-process.
Trustees noted that Hutto ISD is growing rapidly, so the committee should consider that another rezoning will be done in the next few years, as Hutto ISD aims to open another elementary school.
The elected officials expressed concerns that subsequent rezoning would raise issues, as families may have to transfer multiple times to follow the areas.
Barton said the committee tried to create boundaries that resulted in minimal student transfers, but the new zones are necessary to help alleviate capacity at the preexisting schools.
“The attendance committee did not try to make substantial changes that would require (a) large number of students to change schools,” he told trustees.
With new zones causing student transfers, the school district has to consider “grandfather” policies. These policies exempt parents and guardians of rising fifth graders from following the new zones for one year so their students can finish their elementary school years without disruption. Then, they would need to enroll in the correct middle school.
The committee also proposed a “sibling-attendance chain” policy, under which siblings of those rising fifth graders would also receive an exemption for one year and then be required to transfer to the designated school.
However, trustees pointed out that with past rezonings, the school district did not implement a sibling-attendance chain policy. Parents or guardians who wanted their younger children to stay at the same school would need to follow standard transfer procedures.
The board recommended that Barton follow past procedures to prevent campus overcapacity, as students and parents participate in the grandfather policy.
In both scenarios, the school district would not provide transportation for students who take advantage of the policies.
The rezoning will also affect the middle school feeder patterns and elementary students in the district’s dual-language programs.
For feeder patterns, Martinez Elementary students will join Hutto and Cottonwood Creek elementary students at Hutto Middle School.
Norman students would feed into Gus Almquist Middle School instead of Farley.
Regarding serving dual-language students, Hutto, Johnson and Norman elementary schools do not have their own programs. Hutto Elementary-zoned students attend Cottonwood Creek, and students zoned in the latter schools attend Ray Elementary.
The rezoning committee recommended beginning dual-language programs at the Martinez and Norman campuses. Johnsonzoned students would then attend Norman.
The school district will also begin its search for a principal and assistant principal, with respective salaries of $100,000 and $65,000, for the new Martinez Elementary.
Chief of Schools Cara Malone told trustees the school district usually doesn’t hire an assistant principal this early but recommended doing so to account for Hutto ISD’s growth.
Trustee Felix Chavez said the school district should not forget to consider internal candidates.
“Loving this growth … that we’re having,” he said. “There’s some great candidates that we have inside our school district.”
Trustees also approved Amanda Horn, an associate principal at Hutto High School, as Johnson Elementary School’s interim principal.
