Presenter Susan Pulliam outlines plans, timeline and stability rules for Morrisville High opening

Susan Pulliam, introduced as the session presenter, told participants the district expects Morrisville High School to open in the 2027'028 school year and that the school will initially serve ninth and tenth graders before growing to all four grades over three years. "It will start with ninth and tenth grade," Pulliam said, and district materials show a full capacity in the realm of about 1,800 students.

Pulliam framed assignment decisions within Board Policy 4150and four guiding pillars: student achievement, proximity, stability and operational efficiency. She said the district uses an annual enrollment forecast and related maps to identify where seat capacity is needed and to inform attendance-area drawing. "By looking at the data and trends on an annual basis, we're able to account for any changes in residential development patterns," she said.

On who will be reassigned, Pulliam said rising ninth- and tenth-graders who live inside the new Morrisville assignment area will generally be reassigned to the new school; students who will be eleventh or twelfth graders when the school opens will remain at their current schools. She described limited exceptions the board may grant and described the district's recent stability-transfer practice that allows younger siblings to remain with older siblings through twelfth grade in some cases. "If your student is going to be a rising ninth or tenth grader the year that Morrisville High School opens and they're in the assignment area to be assigned to the school, they will be reassigned," Pulliam said.

Pulliam and the moderator described the public-engagement timeline: there are no draft maps yet; the district plans to release tentative boundary maps at a September board work session, accept public feedback through mid-October, hold a formal public hearing in late October, then bring any revisions to the board for action in November. Pulliam urged residents to use the ThoughtExchange (open through April 30) to document neighborhood-level concerns before maps are drawn and to participate in the September forums and open house. "Once the draft is released in September, there'll be an opportunity from September to middle October to review and provide feedback," she said.

She said opening Morrisville High should help relieve overcrowding at nearby campuses that rely on trailers, such as Panther Creek and Green Hope, but cautioned that some capacity changes and cap removals may take multiple years to fully materialize while older student cohorts age out. On transportation, Pulliam said students who receive stability transfers generally will not receive district bus service as part of that transfer; families can pursue hardship or back-to-base transfers during the March transfer window.

On programming and staffing, Pulliam said the new school will provide core courses, electives and extracurriculars as student interest and enrollment allow; athletics will be offered where student interest supports a team, and football would open at junior varsity level and expand later. She said principals are typically named in late November or early December to begin planning in January and that new schools receive additional startup supports.

The district encouraged families to continue using the assignment planning website and the ThoughtExchange; staff said they will summarize community input for a June board work session. The session closed with reminders about the September map release and the public comment windows that follow.