Denton school district officials will present a second option to school board members concerning proposed elementary school zones for the 2009-10 academic year at the Tuesday evening board meeting.

They do not plan to recommend to the board any change to their proposed 2009-10 high school attendance zone boundaries despite vocal opposition from parents about their children being moved from Guyer High School to either Denton or Ryan high schools.

District spokeswoman Sharon Cox said officials studied the parents’ objections at length but couldn’t find any other way to alleviate crowding at Guyer.

In the second option for elementary school zones, all students in the Oakmont area currently assigned to Pecan Creek Elementary School would remain at that school, as opposed to going to the new Stephens Elementary School in Shady Shores.

The major developments affected include The Knoll, Briar Glen, The Woods and Mission Hills, said Gene Holloway, the district’s director of transportation.

The only other change in the second option is a group of students in the Providence Place apartments complex who currently attend Hodge Elementary School would instead be bused to Stephens.

The change affects fewer students, Holloway added. The district would have moved about 580 students around with the first option but only about 370 students would move with the second option.

“We try to not move or disrupt kids that we don’t have to,” Holloway said.

About 195 students from the Oakmont area will stay at their current school, while the 170 students from the Providence Place apartments, which would have been moved from their current school to Pecan Creek under the first proposal, would instead be going to the newer school, he said.

In addition, Holloway said the Providence Place students would be traveling half the distance they currently do to Hodge than they would when going to Stephens.

Input from residents from the public meetings motivated the school district to come up with the second option, Holloway said.

“I’m really pleased with option two and I hope that the school board goes with it,” said Wendy Ball, a resident of The Woods.

“It keeps the kids in the same school. I think they listened to what the parents had to say,” Ball said.

“If the board accepts that [the second option], that’s not going to be the way it will stay forever. It just depends on growth,” said Roger Rutherford, assistant superintendent of elementary programs.

The district cannot promise that it won’t make changes to school zones affecting the Oakmont area, or any area for that matter, in the future, he said, adding that the district is looking for future elementary school sites in the southern portion of the district east of Interstate 35.

Parents in the Braewood and Wynstone subdivisions, whose children are being moved from Hawk Elementary School to L.A. Nelson Elementary School, circulated a petition in opposition of their area being moved from their current school.

They are concerned about children who won’t be eligible to ride the bus getting to Nelson along the busy Teasley Lane, which the state has slated for future expansion.

They say it is safer for their children to go to Hawk.

There are major concerns about capacity issues at Hawk, said Holloway, and they can’t be alleviated without reassigning students to another school.

Some parents have said that they’d rather keep their children in portables as long as they can remain in the school that’s closest to them, but Holloway said the district is trying to phase out use of the portables.

AMY DODD THOMPSON can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is athompson@dentonrc.com.

Rezoning options

Area west of Interstate-35E to remain at Pecan Creek Elementary School:

The Oakmont area, inclusive of Oakmont’s four major developments of The Knoll, Briar Glen, The Woods and Mission Hills

Area west of I-35E to Stephens Elementary School from Pecan Creek:

Area inclusive from Corinth Parkway and I-35E

South on Corinth Parkway to the Denton school district’s southern boundary

West on the school district boundary to Post Oak Road

North on Post Oak to Church Street

East on Church Street to the drainage easement between Oakmont and Windstone residential area

North on a line to I-35E

South of I-35E to Corinth Parkway and I-35E

Area east of I-35E to Stephens from Pecan Creek and Hodge Elementary School:

Providence Place Apartments

Area inclusive of Shady Shores from the I-35E and North Old Highway 77 Intersection, north on a line to Denton Rails & Trails

East on Rails & Trails to Lakeview Boulevard, northeast following a line south of Lakeview Blvd to Lewisville Lake

South following the Lewisville Lake shore line to the southern boundary of the school district

West following the southern school district boundary to I-35E

North following I-35E to the northern Intersection of I-35E and Old Highway 77

New area assigned to Hodge from Lee Elementary School:

Area inclusive of  307 North Loop 288 and 517 North Loop 288

New area assigned to Pecan Creek from Rivera Elementary School:

Area inclusive of Southeast Denton from Brinker and I-35E, northeast on Brinker to Loop 288

North on Loop 288 to Spencer

East on Spencer to City of Denton Recycling Complex to the Hodge boundary

South from the City of Denton Recycling Complex to the current Pecan Creek and Rivera boundaries to Mayhill Road

South on South Mayhill Road to I-35E

Northwest from I-35E & South Mayhill on I-35E Frontage Road to Brinker

New area assigned to Rivera from Pecan Creek:

Area inclusive of 191 Duchess Drive 

New area assigned to Nelson Elementary School from Hawk Elementary School:

Area inclusive of the Braewood, west of the Oakmont Golf Course, north of Teasley Harbor, west of Wheeler Ridge and south of the Robinson & State School Road Intersection