CORINTH — “Oakmont’s upset again,” said one parent in an understatement at a public meeting Wednesday presenting the school district’s proposal for 2009-10 elementary attendance zones.

DRC/Gary Payne

Parents try to figure out where their children will go to school on a map of proposed 2009-10 school zones during a public meeting conducted Wednesday by the Denton school district at Crownover Middle School in Corinth.

With the early opening of Olive Ste­phens Elementary School, Denton school district officials are earlier than usual proposing new attendance zones that would affect L.A. Nelson, Hawk, Pecan Creek, Rivera, Lee and Hodge elementary schools.

About 100 residents came to the meeting at Crownover Middle School, many of them from the Oakmont subdivision and vocally upset about the district’s plans to rezone their area to Nelson Ele­men­tary.

These residents in Oakmont feel they’ve been through changes or proposed changes for several years in a row.

According to district officials, even though three changes have been proposed for Oakmont residents since 2001, they have made only one change.

In 2003 when Pecan Creek Ele­mentary School opened, that group was moved to the new school from McNair Elementary School, said Gene Holloway, the district’s director of transportation.

Denton school officials proposed in 2001 that the Oakmont area be zoned to Ryan Elementary School when it opened, but many residents did not want to be moved from their current school, McNair, so the district backed away from that plan, said Holloway.

In 2002, the attendance zone was modified for McNair, Holloway said, and still those residents stayed in that school zone.

Also, there was a proposal two years ago for that group in Oakmont to go to Nelson Ele­mentary when it opened, but the district backed away from that plan, too, Holloway said.

Melanie Lewis, a parent in Oakmont for almost eight years, said that’s because families fought that plan.

She’s said she’s tired of her area being affected almost every time and she wants to see the district make a long-term commitment to the families for a neighborhood elementary school — Hawk or Pe­can Creek. 

Oakmont resident Adriana Ranum agreed with another parent who questioned why the district was busing students who live in Oakmont outside of the subdivision, while busing in students who live outside of Oakmont.

Parents say they would rather their children walk to one of the two schools within two miles of them than have them bused farther away, which some parents said is not fiscally responsible of the district.

Parent David Bolinger said it would be impossible for his child to walk to Nelson Elementary.

A group of five residents in Oakmont’s Braewood and Wyn­stone areas on Sunday started circulating a petition, which they handed to district officials at the meeting.

The petition had about 180 signatures, with 90 percent of them procured Sunday, said resident Natalie Bolinger. She expects more signatures to be added.

Residents in the Oakmont area whose children go to Pecan Creek but would go to Stephens under the current proposal expressed their concern about what will happen when that area in Shady Shores develops with the completion of the new bridge over Lew­isville Lake.

“We are hearing you loud and clear,” Holloway told parents during the meeting.

He said he and other district officials will take all comments made during this and today’s meeting to other school administrators and board members.

School officials are dealing with crowding concerns and what they call “hyper-growth” in the southern part of the district.

Because Stephens Elementary, at 133 Garza Road in Shady Shores, would be ready to open this fall, educators and school board members opted to open Stephens and allow students within its attendance zone to transfer to the school early and alle­viate overcrowding.

Since the boundaries for Ste­phens must be drawn to complete this plan, school officials decided to map out attendance zones for all schools for the 2009-10 school year.

Under the proposal, students assigned to Stephens from Pecan Creek and to Nelson from Hawk for 2009-10 will be given the option to either go ahead and attend those schools or remain where they are for the 2008-09 school year.

Students who wish to remain at Pecan Creek or Hawk next school year need to pre-enroll by May 1.

The school board will not make the decision on the 2009-10 school zones until after that deadline, so Roger Rutherford, assistant superintendent of elementary programs, suggested that if parents think they may want to keep their children at their current schools, they should pre-register their children.

Parents can change their minds later to send them to Stephens or Nelson for 2008-09, if they want, he said.

In addition, students in all affected elementary school zones who will be fifth-graders by the 2009-10 school year will have the option to remain at their current school, rather than finishing out their elementary education at a new school, Holloway said.

If they opt to stay at their current campus, they’ll need to let administrators know of their preference, Holloway said, and parents will be required to provide them with transportation.

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