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Spring resident urges board to reconsider optimization feeder plan, saying outreach was insufficient
Summary
During public participation at the Sept. 9 Spring ISD board meeting, resident Debbie Townsend criticized the district’s optimization plan outreach and feeder pattern proposals, warning the plan would harm Spring High School’s culture and increase transportation costs for Hirsch students.
Debbie Townsend, a Spring ISD resident, used the public participation period of the Sept. 9 board meeting to challenge the district’s optimization planning and the outreach used to solicit community input.
Townsend told trustees she felt the optimization planning process had not been sufficiently advertised and that about “200-ish” survey participants was an inadequate sample given the district’s size. “We have about 30,000 kids in Spring,” she said, and said she had not heard about optimization meetings until June despite regularly attending board meetings and work sessions.
Townsend specifically criticized a feeder‑pattern graphic shown at an optimization meeting on July 22 that proposed redirecting Hirsch and Twin Creeks students to Decaney, saying the map “makes absolutely no sense” and would increase transportation costs for Hirsch students compared with sending them to the new Spring campus. She said Hirsch students help form the culture at Spring High School and warned that moving those students to Decaney could “set them up to fail” and prompt families to leave Spring ISD.
Townsend also questioned the district’s outreach to neighborhoods, citing a large Labor Day parade in Timberlane where, she said, none of the roughly 1,000 attendees had heard about the optimization plan or seen informational signage.
Board members did not debate or take action on the optimization plan during the meeting; the board told Townsend that, by law, it cannot take action on items not on the meeting agenda during that session. The board’s public comment rules and time limits were read to Townsend before she spoke.
Townsend concluded by asking trustees to reconsider the plan’s logic and its outreach. The board did not announce any immediate follow‑up action on optimization at the meeting.
