| Plano Independent School District | |
|---|---|
| Type and location | |
| Type | Public |
| Country | United States |
| Location | Plano, Texas |
| District Info | |
| Superintendent | Douglas Otto |
| Budget | 479 million USD |
| Students and staff | |
| Students | ~53,000 |
| Teachers | ~6,500 |
| Other information | |
| Website | Plano ISD homepage |
Plano Independent School District (PISD or Plano ISD) is a public school district in southeastern Collin County, Texas, with its headquarters in Plano.[1][2] Plano ISD serves about 100 square miles (260 km2) of land, with 66 square miles (170 km2) of it within the City of Plano. The district also takes students from northern portions of Dallas and Richardson, and portions of Allen, Carrollton, Garland, Lucas, Murphy, Parker, and Wylie.[2]
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.
In 2010, the school district was rated "recognized" by the Texas Education Agency.[3]
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In December 2010 disputes about Plano ISD's west side zoning boundaries arose. Parents complained that the district zoned too many students to western Plano schools.[4]
Around 2011 increasing numbers of parents within the Plano ISD district sent their children to private schools, because the student populations at Plano ISD schools were growing larger, because of reduced state funding, and because of demographic shifts in the district. Around that period, every year 500 students left Plano ISD to go to private schools. By September 2011, in the 2011-2012 school year, 400 students left PISD to go to private school. Private schools in the Plano area saw increased populations. Jessica Meyers of The Dallas Morning News said that the "trickle" of White students leaving the Plano ISD district was not anywhere near as large as the "exodus" that left the Dallas Independent School District after a desegregation ruling in the 1970s.[5]
Directors of admissions of area private schools said that parents were concerned with the entire school experience at Plano ISD, and not just the academic rankings and test scores. David Chard, the dean of the School of Education and Human Development of Southern Methodist University, said that the perceived difficulties of teaching English as a foreign language students who originate from other cultures is one of the "red flags" for parents within the Plano ISD. Chard added that the "the reality of Plano is changing pretty dramatically." Chard also cited the ease of accessing school performance data and the larger range of alternatives to district public schools, including increasing numbers of charter and private schools.[5]
Around 2001 83% of the school aged children within Plano ISD attended Plano ISD schools. 69% of the students were White American. 9% of the students were low income.[5]
In 2011, 55,000 students attended Plano ISD schools, making up 62% of school aged children within the Plano ISD boundary. As of the same year, white students made up 49% of the population in the district's schools. Asian students made up over over 20 percent of the Plano ISD school population. 24% of the Plano ISD students are low income.[5]
Plano ISD has an educational structure that differs from the typical U.S. educational pattern. Primary education in PISD, following the typical U.S. structure, consists of 44 elementary schools that serve the kindergarten through fifth grades. However, PISD's system of secondary education consists of 12 middle schools that serve the sixth through eighth grades, 6 '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 specific schools at the next highest level. 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 very large 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 2,567, 2,795, and 1,855 students, respectively. Each year's graduating class is approximately half of each number. Previous years' Graduation Commencement Ceremonies have taken place at Reunion Arena and the Dallas Convention Center.
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] In 2011, Plano West Senior High School was ranked 98 on Newsweek's "America's Best High Schools, and Plano East Senior High School was ranked 461.[6] The 2011 list was more comprehensive in ranking criteria, taking into account other factors such as mean SAT score and percent of college bound students. [6] Plano ISD schools reportedly administer more Advanced Placement tests than any other school district west of the Mississippi River.
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.[6] O'Reilly later retracted his allegation on 20 December.[7] 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. The Morgan, et al., v. Plano Independent School District (PISD) case began in 2003, with school officials even banning students from using red and green napkins and paper plates to a school-sponsored "holiday" party.
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 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. [8]
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.
In the November of 2010, following a complaint by the parents of a student, the Plano ISD textbook board decided to remove the textbook, Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities: Alternative Volume by Lawrence S. Cunningham, from its Humanities curriculum because the illustrations of works of art included nudity and various sex acts. After a public outcry, the decision was reversed within days.[7]
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.
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