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The student news site of McKinney High School

Manestream News

The student news site of McKinney High School

Manestream News

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Looking forward: possible UIL, student enrollment changes coming

UIL district 10-5A is one of the mega-districts of Texas. Plano East, Allen, Plano Senior and Plano West high schools are the four largest schools in Texas, with enrollments ranging from 5,000 to over 6,000 students with the 9-10 feeder schools from Plano added in. The next largest school is McKinney Boyd High School, which recorded a student population of 3,043 on Oct. 25, the UIL snapshot day for determining realignment.

The runt of the litter is McKinney High School, which reported a student population snapshot of 2,076, just 40 students larger than neighboring 4A McKinney North High School.

Every two years, UIL examines school sizes across the state to determine how many schools will fall into 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A. This year’s alignment will feature the new 6A class.

In the last UIL realignment, McKinney was classified as a 5A school with a population of 2,121, only 31 students over the 2,090-student cut-off. With McKinney reporting a population 14 under last realignment’s cutoff, according to head football coach Jeff Smith, MHS has a good chance of falling back down to the next lowest classification.

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“Every two years, when we do this [realign the state], the cutoff number the last several times has gone up a little bit,” Coach Smith said. “It goes up 50 or 75 students, so that number changes every two years. It usually doesn’t go down, it usually goes up. From 2,000, it might go up to 2,150 or 2,200, but no one really know, it’s just speculation. I think our chances are pretty good, pretty decent, to be in the new 5A classification, which is the old 4A.”

After spending two years competing against schools that outweigh MHS in students and resources, the administration hopes McKinney will fall back down.

“We would like to go down to the smaller classification because number one, when you’re the smallest school in a mega district, just statistically, just based solely on the numbers, it’s tough for you to compete,” Vice Principal Jimmy Bowser said. “Now, our kids are scrappy. Our kids will stand up to anybody…But when schools like Allen and Plano have 6000 kids, just based solely on the numbers the likelihood that they’re going to have more kids that are talented and that are bigger or are stronger or are faster, statistically speaking, those school are set up better to compete against small schools, you know, when they’re really competitive with each other.”

While sports like baseball, volleyball and soccer have all experienced success in the larger classification, McKinney has been the constant underdog and the occasional Cinderella story of district 10-5A for the past two years. UIL will announce the official realignment in late November, according to Coach Smith.

But whether McKinney stays in the larger classification or moves back down, beginning next year McKinney High School will begin its transition to a true 6A size with district wide rezoning. McKinney High School is slated to become a 2,800 to 3,000 student school.

Rezoning plans won’t be completed until February 2014, but reports from campus and Central Office administrators say that the bulk of the growth will come from taking students slated to attend at-capacity Boyd and move them to MHS.

This does not, however, imply that upperclassmen will make up the majority of the movement. The district’s current plan is to “grandfather” upperclassmen and any younger siblings into Boyd, meaning that those students would still be able to attend Boyd.

“For instance, if you’re a ninth, tenth or eleventh grader at Boyd, then not only would you be able to stay at Boyd, but if you have a little brother or sister then they would be grandfathered to stay at Boyd as well,” Mr. Bowser said.

The majority of the growth will come from next year’s incoming freshman class, a class that could number up to 900 students.

“It is very likely that we will have a 700 to 900 person freshman class,” Mr. Bowser said.

Despite the implications of a massive freshman class, the administration, according to Mr. Bowser, is excited about filling up the classrooms of the largest school building in McKinney.

“We don’t really have a hope one way or the other whether we grandfather or don’t grandfather, because those complaints, if there are any, will be directed at central office, not the school because we’re not the ones making these decisions,” Mr. Bowser said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to have more kids in the building because right now we’ve got 39 classrooms coming to us in January, and we’d like to fill those classrooms with kids. The question is, which kids?”

The prospect of a larger school, according to teachers, coaches and directors, presents MHS with new opportunities to succeed.

“There’s lots of advantages to just being bigger as far as band is concerned,” director of bands Mr. Ken Ringel said. “You know, in marching band, the bigger the better. There’s more to look at, there’s a bigger sound, and there’s more kids. There’s more kids to choose from, it’s harder to be better, to be at the very top of the band, so usually quality goes up.”

Associate director of bands Ms. Elizabeth Becker, a graduate of Plano East High School in 2007, experienced the advantages of a big school first hand.

“We had lots of kids to pick from,” Ms. Becker said. “It was pretty easy to have a good number of people who really wanted be there and who wanted to excel at what they were doing.”

Falling back down to a lower classification would shift MHS from the smallest school competing in a giant district to one of the biggest schools competing in a smaller district.

“The idea of being one of the larger schools in our district is exciting just because for these last two years we’ve been on the other end of that in our giant 5A district,” Mr. Bowser said. “The idea of being a 2,800 student school in a district with 1,800 person schools is very exciting because, based solely on the numbers, you would be able to compete well, that your school would have some success which is one of the things we love to see. There’s nothing like going and watching your kids compete.”

But whichever classification McKinney falls into next year, everything, from athletics to fine arts to academics, will be impacted, says Mr. Bowser.

“This is probably one of the most important transitional moments in the history of McKinney High School,” Mr. Bowser said. “We’ve got a history that goes back more than a hundred years, and one of the things that’s exciting is that we’re celebrating a couple of milestones. Our band turns 100 next year, our Marquettes turn 50 next year, and we’ve added 200,000 sq. ft. to our building. That’s larger than many high schools. That’s like adding a second high school to McKinney High School. This is going to be one of the biggest transitions in the history of the school, and it’s our job to get us through it.”

by Ben Johnson

photo by Giovanni Sabala

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    Jimmy BowserNov 18, 2013 at 8:49 am

    Well done, Ben!

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