Parents supporting the building of a new Eanes school district elementary campus on the River Hills tract in the current Valley View Elementary School attendance area will hold a community forum on March 9 at the Laura Bush Library. The group has collected approximately 800 signatures on a petition to provide a local elementary school for the western edge of the district.

Valley View parents Ian Ball, Scott Urdahl and Andrea Ramos said the area off of Cuernavaca Drive west of River Hills Road is one of the last areas in the district still growing. They say 496 new homes have been built in the area in the last 10 years. Those new homes sport an average appraised value of $800,000, adding a 40 percent increase to the tax base from the Valley View attendance zone, they said.

“We are focused on resolving three district issues,” Ball said. “We want to improve the safety of our young children being bused for such long periods of time each day. We want to make after-school programs more viable for our families, and we want to increase parent involvement at our school.”

Currently, students in the Valley View attendance zone are bused to the school, which is located an estimated six miles from the center of its residential base.

“The only option we see that solves all three of these issues is a new school on the River Hills tract,” Ball said. “That option would also provide some much-needed athletic facilities in the district.”

Ball said he and other parents are finding large community support for the idea within the Valley View attendance zone and quickly growing support in other areas of the district. He said that the district’s ability to continue to provide the kind of exemplary education it has become known for will depend on strong strategic planning to provide flexibility for quickly changing learning environments in the future.

“The days of lectures and note taking are over,” he said. “I don’t think anyone knows what learning will be like, even in the near future.”

He said the district will have to provide flexibility in classroom configuration and in adapting to changing attendance populations to stay ahead of the game.

“Locating elementary schools near students’ homes benefits everyone,” he added. “For our youngest students especially, eliminating lengthy commutes fosters student achievement, extracurricular participation, parent achievement and safety.”

He said that providing a neighborhood school and repurposing the Valley View campus sets off a domino-effect addressing a number of district concerns, including providing suitable permanent space for special student populations, adding needed administration space for instructional training, and freeing up Valley View gym and playground facilities for Forest Trail Elementary School students.