Letter from Bret & Michelle Curran

Buster, thanks for setting this up! Makes me wonder why I didn't think to set one up! :-)

. Could you post this to the blog please?

As parents of 4, currently in grades 7th, 6th, 4th and 2nd, Michelle & I would like to cast a vote for our preference to have our children attend Guyer High School. First of all, it's odd that we're even having to cast a vote and state a preference, as it was thoroughly and completely expected that we would be attending the new high school that's "just down the road". We are extremely curious as to why the lines were drawn as such, and would appreciate full disclosure of the decisioning process. The DISD website seems like the perfect place to present such information, as opposed to the brief article in the newspaper.

With the information we do have, our preference for attending Guyer High School is based on three factors:

1. Distance -- how to state the obvious? Our family has been down the path of commuting to the center of town before when our children attended pre-school near DHS. It is an 18-20 minute drive at best, one-way, from our house. Not so bad until taking into account the fact that we average 4 round trips to McMath middle school currently due to extracurricular activities such as band and athletics. That would amount to 160 minutes per day, which is 2 hours and 40 minutes.
   
2. Facilities -- make no mistake, the lure of a new high school with new facilities is very real. I attended Denton High School, and often thought it would be quite nostalgic having my children attend as well. However, I would trade that nostalgia in a heartbeat for the opportunity for my kids to have increased opportunities afforded by attending a new school with better facilities.
   
   Our family is fortunate enough to attend a relatively new middle school, McMath. But even that new school has had improvements made to its design, as Principal Dianne Blair says on the DISD site: "Ronny Cronover Middle Schoool is the second school that Denton ISD has constructed using this same footprint but with upgrades and changes that our experience with the first construction told us were needed." With nearly 50 years difference, the new Guyer high school will be heads and shoulders above DHS with regard to facilities.
   
3. Continuity and Community -- In an ideal world, it would be as simple as several elementary schools flowing into a middle school, which in turn flows into the high school. This would be ideal because of the continuity that it allows in the community of the school. The success of public schools, and therefore the education of our kids as future citizens and leaders, depends heavily on the establishment of the community, in many areas such as the kids, the parents, the families, the extracurricular activities such as sports, scouting, and so forth.
   
   We want our kids to continue their education, and school-age lives, with the friends and community they've established -- both from elementary transitioning into middle school, and then middle school transitioning into high school. We, as adults, coaches, volunteers, car-poolers and leaders, want to continue with the friends and community we've established over the years.
   
   While this blog is primarily focused on the Montecito and Forrestridge households, it is our belief and desire that the communities that comprise our elementary schools and middle school should continue together if at all possible. We are not satisfied with the current plan that would send the neighborhoods west of Teasley to DHS while the other part of our McMath community on the east side of Teasley would go to Guyer. Nor would we be overly pleased with the east of Teasley and south of Teasley going to Guyer, while north of Teasley (Southridge) being sent to DHS.

We understand that there is no solution that would make everyone happy. The reasons listed here, in prioritized order, are why we want our children to attend Guyer High School.

Bret & Michelle Curran

3000 Montecito Drive