New school year brings capacity issues for Fort Bend ISD school

MISSOURI CITY, TX (KTRK) -- The new school year started off with a lot of new faces at one Fort Bend Independent School District elementary school, which is over capacity.

Jan Schiff Elementary in Missouri City had about 1,250 students enrolled as of Monday, and school capacity is 1,180, according to a district spokesperson.

The district capped enrollment on the first day of school so any new students will be bussed to Sienna Crossing Elementary. Two new portables were brought in for the start of school and a new kindergarten teacher was added in the past week.

Some parents say they've seen the overcrowding firsthand.

"From 3 years ago we went from roughly 13-15 students per teacher ratio. This year my daughter is in the 5th grade, the last year, and she's in a class of 25," explained a father named Fred, who declined to give his last name.

The district will be asking the state for a waiver to increase class sizes by one to two students, spokesperson Amanda Bubela said. New construction and new families are moving in around the Schiff area compared to other nearby schools, where neighborhoods are "built out" and don't have new construction, she said.

"The Fort Bend ISD did conduct a feeder pattern boundary study in the 2014-2015 school year, and the goal of that was to manage growth," she said.

The district was unable to provide any enrollment numbers for nearby schools by close of business Monday.

The school board recently approved a construction contract to add new classrooms to Schiff and a new elementary school is opening in 2017 so the attendance boundaries will be adjusted to alleviate some crowding, Bubela said.