Alvin ISD adopts online registration

District opens new Manvel Junior High campus and renovated Alvin Junior High

The Alvin Independent School District is using a new online system that allows parents to register their children for school.

Also new in the district are the Manvel Junior High campus and renovations at Alvin Junior High. The district is looking beyond the current school year with ongoing construction on two future elementary schools and recent voting by future students of the planned Shadow Creek High School in Pearland on the campus mascot.

The new online system was launched in May for parents to use for the start of the new school year, which begins Aug. 24. Students returning to the district and those enrolling in Alvin ISD for the first time are required to go through the online verification process.

The new system, according to the district, is intended to be easy to use and save parents time while reducing paperwork at the start of each school year. The district also hopes the new system will help it stay up-to-date on changing student information.

“All students returning to Alvin ISD must provide current information each year,” said Tomika Gamble, the district’s communications coordinator. “Using the online process will eliminate those numerous paper forms sent

home at the beginning of each school year. All new students to Alvin ISD must also complete the online student enrollment process to enroll.”

That means parents with more than one child living in the district will need to complete a separate online registration for each child. Gamble said students are encouraged to be registered before the first day of school.

According to the district’s website, parents will need to create a Self-Serve account at www.alvinisd.net/registration to use the online registration system. Once an account has been established, parents will be able to enter registration information and confirm enrollment. When finished, parents will need to print an Online Enrollment Confirmation screen that will provide a registration confirmation number and an ID that parents will need to bring to their children’s campuses.

Registration will not be considered complete until the documentation is brought to the campus. Parents will also be required to provide proof of residency.

Students are assigned to schools based on where they live. Residency documentation allows the district to assess enrollment numbers to determine staffing, resources and desks for pupils needed at each campus.

Alvin ISD could serve approximately 21,915 students throughout the 2015-16 school year, according to a demographic report updated in March by Templeton Demographics. The number is a 4.4 percent increase in the district’s enrollment over the previous school year. According to the report, enrollment could reach almost 25,000 in 2018. By the 2024-25 school year, Alvin ISD could have upward of 31,900 students.

“Each year, it is projected that the district will continue to grow at a rate of about 1,000 students per school year, which is the size of a one junior high campus,” Gamble said.

To keep up, the district is debuting its latest campus, Manvel Junior High School, at 7302 McCoy St. in Manvel this year. The $28.7 million project began in January 2014 and recently opened.

Last week, the school’s administrators and educators began moving into their offices and setting up classrooms for the new school year, said Jeff Couvillion, director of building programs for Alvin ISD.

The campus is marking a comeback of sorts. Manvel Junior High was originally at 101 Lewis Lane. The school closed in 2012 after the district’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee suggested the condition of the campus, including its student capacity and amenities, were not up to par with other junior highs in the district.

Students returning to Alvin Junior High, 2300 South St., this school year will see changes to that campus with the addition of classrooms on the building’s south side. Couvillion said the project expanded the campus’ student capacity from 800 to 1,000. The $21.2 million multiphase project began last year while school was in session. Construction will continue through October. So far, the project added a fine arts center for the school’s band, choir and theater departments and locker rooms. It also has expanded the library, upgraded instructional space and renovated the building exterior.

Both projects are part of a $252.6 million bond approved by district voters in 2013. The bond is funding the construction of two elementary campuses and a high school set to open next school year.

This school year, district residents will see construction continue on the $17.1 million Bill Hasse Elementary School at 1200 House St. in Alvin. Construction began in January.

Construction also continues at 9815 County Road 48 on a $17.4 million Meridiana Elementary School. Work began in February on the 12-acre site. The campus will provide relief to elementary campuses in the Iowa Colony and Manvel areas of the district. According to the district, student capacity of schools in those areas — Don Jeter Elementary and Savannah Lakes — are already bulging over.

The district’s Building Programs Department also is working to construct Shadow Creek High School at 11850 Broadway St. in Pearland. The 531,400-square-foot building is to include five learning houses, instructional space, fine arts, athletics and a career and technology instruction area. The high school will feature a two-level auditorium as well as athletic fields.

Students living within the high school’s attendance zone were invited to cast their vote on the campus’ mascot during a mock election held Aug. 4 and 8 at Pearland Westside Library.

“This was a great opportunity for our students to play a role in the selection process of the Shadow Creek High School mascot,” said Kelly Hestand, the campus’ principal. “We really want them to feel as if they have a voice and say in their new school.”

Six mascot names — the Jaguars, the Sharks, the Spartans, the Storm, the Timberwolves and the Titans — were presented to students to select using voting machines provided to the district by Brazoria County. The mascot options had been narrowed by a student committee earlier this year.

The district will announce the winning mascot in the next few weeks on its website at www.alvinisd.net and through the district’s Twitter social media pages @AlvinISD and @ShadowCreekHS.

The results of the vote will be taken into consideration as the district determines the school’s mascot.