Plano Independent School District

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Plano Independent School District (PISD or Plano ISD) is a public school district in Plano, Texas (USA). Plano ISD also takes students from some areas of Dallas, Richardson, Allen, Murphy, Frisco, and Parker. [1]

Led by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Douglas Otto, PISD serves 53,000 students and employs 6,500 faculty members spread across 65 schools and 3 special and early education centers. The district is known for its high academic standards. PISD has an operating budget of 479 million U.S. dollars. This size of the budget is due to the high property values in the city of Plano, though a large amount of the budget is redistributed to less affluent districts. Accolades are listed on the website.

Contents

[edit] Educational Structure

Plano ISD has an educational structure that exceeds the typical U.S. educational pattern. Primary education in PISD, following the typical U.S. structure, consists of 42 elementary schools that serve the kindergarden through fifth grades. However, PISD's system of secondary education consists of 12 middle schools that serve the sixth through eighth grades, 5 'high schools' that serve the ninth and tenth grades, and 3 'senior high schools' that serve the eleventh and twelfth grades. The 'high school' and 'senior high school' system is a departure from the standard U.S. high school that serves the ninth through twelfth grades.[2]

PISD students attend schools based primarily on the geographic location of their homes. Schools of a lower level 'feed into' a certain school of the next highest level, meaning that students leaving the lower level schools attend the higher level school. The one exception to the feeder system is for students wishing to participate in the International Baccalaureate program, which is only offered at Clark High School, Williams High School, and Plano East Senior High School.[3] Parents of students may also request transfers out of their students' assigned schools for various reasons (such as to take classes unique to a particular school).[4]

This system leads to incredibly huge graduating classes and overall student populations. At Plano Senior High School, Plano East Senior High School, and Plano West Senior High School, the current student populations are listed as 2,344, 2,526, and 1,879 students, respectively. Each year's graduating class is approximately half of each number. Graduation typically takes place at Reunion Arena in Dallas.[citation needed]

All three of PISD's senior high schools were recently listed in the top 500 of Newsweek's list of 1000 top high schools in America which ranked schools using the ratio of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students in 2004 to the number of graduating seniors. [5] Plano ISD schools reportedly administer more Advanced Placement tests than any other school district west of the Mississippi River.[citation needed]

[edit] In the news

On 20 January, 2006, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee enrolled at Plano West Senior High School and his biology teacher discovered what the students have affectionately named "X-fish" - a prehistoric fish - on the school grounds. [6]

On the 9 December, 2005, edition of The O'Reilly Factor, as part of his "War on Christmas" segment, news commentator, Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that the district had banned students from wearing red and green clothing "because they were Christmas colors." An attorney from the school district requested a retraction.[7] O'Reilly later retracted his allegation on 20 December.[8] O'Reilly had mistakenly included clothing among the items banned by PISD, while the ongoing lawsuit against the district only alleges the banning of the distribution of written religious materials.

That lawsuit was originally filed against PISD on Dec 15, 2004 (Jonathan Morgan, et al., v. the Plano Independent School District, et al.). On Dec 16, 2004, prior to the school "winter parties, Judge Paul Brown of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a Temporary Restraining Order, requiring PISD to lift these restrictions.

In another more serious legal dispute, Plano ISD was found to have violated First Amendment rights of parents during public meetings about the implementation of a controversial new math curriculum, "Connected Math". During several years of appeals by PISD, the ruling was consistently upheld at all levels, including the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (in July of 2003.) The district briefly considered an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, but instead reached a settlement of $400,000. It is important to note that this was a settlement of the judgment, not the ruling of a First Amendment rights violation by the district. [9]

The most recent Federal lawsuit against PISD was filed in March, 2006 by a religious group, Students Witnessing Absolute Truth (SWAT,) alleging religious discrimination. In a Decision of the US District Court granting a preliminary injunction against Plano ISD, the judge said, part, "The issue in this case is not one of sponsorship or the lack thereof, but of the flagrant denial for equal access guaranteed to S.W.A.T…The harm at issue is irreparable because it inhibits the exercise of Plaintiff’s First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion.” On April 26, 2006, Plano ISD offered, and SWAT accepted, an Offer of Settlement, which included the district's promise to change its discriminatory policy.

As of the 2006-07 school year, Plano ISD faced big issues on proxy avoidance.

[edit] List of schools

Each household in Plano ISD is zoned to an elementary school, a middle school, a high school, and a senior high school. High schools serve grades 9-10 while senior high schools serve grades 11-12; however, any 9th or 10th grader is eligible to participate in extracurricular sports at the senior high level.

[edit] Secondary schools

Plano Senior High School
Plano Senior High School
Plano East Senior High School
Plano East Senior High School

[edit] Senior high schools

[edit] High schools

[edit] Middle schools

[edit] K-8 schools

  • Special Programs Center

[edit] Primary schools

[edit] Early childhood schools

  • Barron Early Childhood School
  • Beaty Early Childhood School
  • Pearson Early Childhood School

[edit] Specific schools

  • Rice Middle School is the home of the Ravens. It has 1,115 students. The principal is Gail Stelter. The school won the recycle award for three years straight[citation needed]. Rice feeds into Jasper High School, which feeds into Plano Senior High School. Rice has an award wining music progam that has won dozens of trophies in only eight years open.[citation needed]
  • Schimelpfenig Middle School opened in the fall of 1980 with 410 sixth and seventh grade students. The first eighth grade class was enrolled a year later. It was the sixth middle school to open in Plano. In 2003, the school underwent a major renovation.[4] The school is named after Fred Schimelpfenig, who was the mayor of Plano from 1904 to 1908. Schimelpfenig in German roughly translates to "shiny penny". The head teacher is Olga Sanchez-Grosscup and there are currently about 950 students.[5] Elementary schools that feed into Schimelpfenig Middle School are Bethany Elementary School, Carlisle Elementary School, and Mathews Elementary School. Schimelpfenig feeds into Jasper High School, which in turn feeds into Plano Senior High School.[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 through 1999-2002. PDF
  2. ^ a b c d Blue Ribbon Schools Program: Schools Recognized 2003 through 2007. PDF
  3. ^ Microsoft Word - 2007-schools.doc
  4. ^ Schimelpfenig Middle School - About Schimelpfenig Middle School. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
  5. ^ Plano Independent School District Schimelpfenig Middle School. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
  6. ^ Plano Independent School District - Feeder Schools Chart. Retrieved 19 October 2007.

[edit] References

  1. ^  Kantrowitz, Barbara. "The 1000 Best High Schools in America." Newsweek. 16 May 2005. Accessed 10 December 2005.
  2. ^  "'Red & Green Clothing Ban' False Rumor". PISD.edu. 12 December 2005. Accessed 25 December 2005.
  3. ^  Breen, Kim. "O'Reilly: I made mistake". The Dallas Morning News. 21 December 2005. Accessed 25 December 2005.
  4. ^  Celia J. Chiu, et al. v. Plano Independent School District, et al. Accessed 10 December 2005.
  5. ^  Know Your School District: Plano ISD. Plano Independent School District. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.
  6. ^  Intra-District Transfers: Plano ISD. Plano Independent School District. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.
  7. ^  International Baccalaureate: Plano ISD. Plano Independent School District. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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2007 Texas Education Agency Accountability Rating
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Plano Independent School District
Senior High Schools
High Schools
Clark  • Jasper  • Shepton  • Vines  • Williams
Middle Schools
Armstrong  • Bowman  • Carpenter  • Frankford  • Haggard  • Hendrick  • Murphy  • Renner  • Rice  • Robinson  • Schimelpfenig  • Wilson
K-8 Schools
Special Programs Center
Elementary Schools
Aldridge  • Andrews  • Barksdale  • Bethany  • Beverly  • Boggess  • Brinker  • Carlisle  • Centennial  • Christie  • Daffron  • Davis  • Dooley  • Forman  • Gulledge  • Haggar  • Harrington  • Haun  • Hedgcoxe  • Hickey  • Hightower  • Huffman  • Hughston  • Hunt  • Jackson  • Mathews  • McCall  • Meadows  • Memorial  • Mendenhall  • Miller  • Mitchell  • Rasor  • Saigling  • Shepard  • Sigler  • Skaggs  • Stinson  • Thomas  • Weatherford  • Wells  • Wyatt
Early Childhood Schools
Barron  • Beaty  • Pearson