Speaking of Katy schools: The power lines in the photo on the left, a couple miles southwest of Katy Mills mall, flag the dividing line between Jefferson Development’s Firethorne subdivision, zoned to Katy ISD, and the just-announced Firethorne West addition in Fulshear the company just announced — which will be served by the Lamar Consolidated ISD. The new Katy ISD elementary school site waiting for November’s bond vote and proudly featured in the center of Firethorne’s master plan will not be serving the 1,400 planned homes in Firethorne West, even though they’ll be only 2 blocks away. The kids in Firethorne West will likely be attending Huggins Elementary, which is more than five miles to the southwest. And until new roads are built they’d actually get to drive past that “Future Katy ISD†elementary school every school day to get there:
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Firethorne’s master plan does show a “proposed†Lamar CISD elementary school in its new West section, but it isn’t clear what stage of development that school is in — or exactly who is proposing it. When the kids in Firethorne West get older, they’ll have a longer commute to high school, too: Lamar CISD’s Foster High School is 7 1/2 miles further away from the development than Katy High School, where Firethorne students go. Firethorne West students will face longer carpools in junior high, too.
- Firethorne Breaks Ground on 430-Acre Firethorne West; Katy/Fulshear Community Exceeds New Home Sale Records in 2010 [Firethorne]
Photos: Aaron Carpenter
7 miles is a long commute to school? Growing up, elementary was 5 miles and high school was about 8. Many others had 15-20 miles to get to the high school.
In all fairnes, Gus did say “7 1/2 miles further away”. I don’t know off hand how far away Katy HS is from Firethorn, but the total commute could end up being much further.
And yes, it makes a difference!
All I know is friends who moved to Greatwood thinking they were in FBISD but were really in Lamar; yeah stupid, sold their houses at a loss, and moved to Katy.
That first pic reminds me of that scene in Back to the Future where McFly goes back to the 1950s and see’s his subdivision as nothing more than a ‘coming soon’ sign.
What about the two school boards sitting down together so that they do not duplicate facilities and maximize the tax dollars of the citizens of Ft. Bend County.
The the Boards could even be innovative and plan to build facilities, elementary, junior high, and high school jointly. They could be a model of efficiency.
However, they probably won’t and we will continue the practice of educational fiefdoms. Fiefdoms occur at all levels of education and are a product of CEO egos.
Is there an update to this situation? It’s 2013 and I’m thinking about a house in Firethorne West.