We, the residents of communities on the east side of FBISD, urge FBISD BOT to halt rebalancing the enrollments at the two middle schools – Fort Settlement Middle (FSMS) and First Colony Middle (FCMS) – being hastily put together for the school year starting in August 2019, for the following reasons:

(1)  Complete lack of need at this time given the data indicating utilization rates at FSMS are below 100%.

(2) A decision that impacts residents on the east side of the district is being made when there is unequal representation in the BOT as FBISD did not fill the position vacated when Mr. K P George was sworn in as the Fort Bend County Judge in January 2019.

(3)  Complete lack of consistency in similar decisions made for other parts of the district. For example, BOT tabled the discussion of rebalancing a HS on the east side this year, even though building of a new HS will take several years while RPHS is projected to reach 145% utilization in 2022.

(4) Per Dr. Charles Dupre’s message to the district, rebalance will be required in the same area again after ES53 is built within a couple of years. These repeated rebalancing have a measurable emotional cost to families and a real financial cost to the District.  No community supports these measures twice in a short time period.

(5) Complete lack of transparency without any community engagement as the BOT wants to make the decisions hastily, before the May 2019 elections. Creating an artificial sense of urgency and excluding impacted communities’ input is not acceptable to any community.

(6) These repeated rebalancing exercises in the past year and now have generated animosity among communities in the District, fueled by the current BOT due to their favoritism of one community against another, and their inability to stay impartial.

Our children deserve stability, consistency and fairness in decisions made about their education. Please do not have our children be victims of another rebalance and feeder pattern change hastily.

We request no rebalance and to keep the existing feeder pattern at this time.

We request due process of analyzing and planning feeder pattern changes, if any, after addressing ES overcrowding.