The Prosper ISD school board voted Monday to approve the annexation of property in Prosper from Denton ISD.
The Denton ISD school board already voted against the same petition to detach the homes from district boundaries, citing that the move isn't in the educational, social or economic interest of the students in the affected area.
Jeff Crownover, a deputy superintendent with Prosper ISD, told the Prosper school board that the contested portion of Windsong Ranch includes 220 acres with 349 homes built in a development that has the capacity for 420 developed lots. There are about 299 school-age children in the affected area now, all of whom attend Prosper ISD schools. Most of the homes are high-value properties, with some worth more than $2 million.
Prosper ISD agreed to accept students from the territory in 2014, but a formal agreement wasn't signed until 2020, Crownover said.
The Texas Education Code governs boundary changes, and Crownover said the code dictates that to be eligible for annexation, a property has to be contiguous to the receiving school district. The code also prohibits a boundary change from reducing a detaching district's tax base by a ratio at least twice as large as the ratio by which it would reduce its membership.
Petitioners can't change a school boundary if doing so would drop the detaching district's area to less than 9 square miles.
The students in the affected Windsong Ranch territory have been attending Prosper ISD schools since the neighborhood opened through a contract among Windsong Ranch, the Prosper Education Foundation and the Prosper school district.
Some students walk from their Windsong Ranch homes to Windsong Ranch and Bryant Elementary schools. But most students from the affected neighborhood are enrolled at Mosely and Rushing middle schools.
The closest Denton ISD high school is Braswell High School, located about 5 miles away.
"What makes this completely unique in all of our research is that we're the only district in the entire state for 45 years that we went through and looked that has the students already attending the attached area that we want to come to," said Doug Charles, a Prosper resident and father who is co-chairing the petition to detach the territory from Denton ISD and have Prosper ISD annex it.
Denton ISD stands to lose roughly $6 million in tax revenue, though Charles said the property owners would bring some Denton ISD debt to Prosper. The annexation wouldn't disrupt anything for students or families.
"We're not asking to move students from Denton ISD to you," Charles said. "You're already picking us up on buses. You're already educating us. We're already attending every school. We're walking to the schools. We're driving to the schools. We're playing on the sports teams at the schools. We're full participants right now."
The Prosper school board weighed the same questions that Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath will consider when he determines approval.
Morath will consider the educational interests of the students who would be formally moved into Prosper ISD, the interests of the students in both Denton and Prosper school districts, and the broader social, economic and educational effects of a boundary change.
"Short and simple, we do not believe there is any educational impact of this decision," Crownover said in his report to the Prosper school board. "Students will attend our Prosper ISD schools regardless of what happens here tonight. Transportation, nothing changes."
Crownover said administrators don't see a social impact for students from the Windsong Ranch area, as they will continue attending Prosper schools and won't see abrupt changes to their social groups.
"Things would change for adults, though," Crownover said. "If you're an adult in the affected area, now you would be eligible to vote in Prosper ISD elections. You'd be eligible to run for the board in these elections. You'd see your taxes would change, going to Prosper instead of Denton."
The economic changes would be real, Crownover said, breaking it down:
- Prosper ISD would get roughly $15,926.81 from homeowner taxes in the affected area — not all of that goes to schools.
- Because Prosper ISD is a "recapture district," the state would likely take that additional tax revenue for redistribution across property-poor school districts.
- The district might lose funding from the Prosper Education Foundation that has come with the contract for Windsong Ranch students to attend Prosper schools.
- Prosper could absorb $31.7 million in debt from the affected households coming into the district in the first year. Denton County and Collin County commissioners would ultimately determine the debt.
- Overall, the boundary change could dent the Prosper ISD budget to the tune of $25.2 million, but officials project the forecast gets "better and better after that," Crownover said. "Our best guess is that it would take about 12 years to pay off that debt."
Charles said that when he and other homeowners bought houses in Windsong Ranch, part of the attraction was the value of the real estate, but also the reputation of Prosper ISD.
Prosper and Denton ISDs have similar enrollments, with Denton ISD reporting 33,228 for the 2024-25 school year and Prosper ISD reporting 31,577.
The districts diverge, though, in other key metrics kept by the state. Just 6% of Prosper ISD students are economically disadvantaged, while 48% of Denton ISD are. Denton ISD is a majority-Hispanic district, with a much larger number of students in need of bilingual education.
In the most recent state report cards, Prosper ISD achieved an A rating overall, and Denton ISD got a B rating.
"As a homeowner, I graduated three of my kids. I chose Prosper ISD," Charles said. "I chose my home. And just to dispel the myth, we weren't told when we acquired our homes. We were told our homes were a part of Prosper ISD. Period. End of story. None of us knew about the contract until after we acquired our homes."
If Prosper ISD were to annex the territory, the district would get $6.5 million in new revenue. After recapture, a state-mandated process that uses revenue from property-rich school districts for districts that aren't rich in property, and paying the territory's debt to Denton ISD, the first year of annexation would bring $3.7 million into Prosper ISD. The petitioners claim the boundary change would bring $12.9 million in 16 years, projecting increased revenue from continued home sales and expected rising values in Windsong Ranch.
However, Texas school boards are having to consider the latest initiative announced by Gov. Greg Abbott: abolishing school property taxes altogether. Board members discussed the rapidly changing school funding legislation coming out of Austin. Most recently, state lawmakers passed a measure that will allow Texas families to use up to $10,000 each year of school funding to send a child to private or religious schools. During the next school year, the basic allotment for students will be $6,215 per student. Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonprofit advocacy group, reports that Texas is in the bottom 10 states nationwide in per-student funding, paying $4,500 under the national average.
All of the speakers at Monday night's public hearing asked the board to vote in favor of the annexation.
"We love Prosper ISD," said Jeff Sterling, who moved to the city five years ago in part because of the school district. Sterling co-chairs the petition initiative with Charles.
"Some of the people in this room tonight moved across the country," he said. "We have people who moved from California. We want you to hear the voices of understanding. There's a financial impact. We understand that. But to me, the biggest thing comes from the tax revenue that comes from us. If it takes 12 years, if it takes 10, if it takes 15 — we're 13 years in where you've received nothing. Whether it's 10, 12, 13, 15. Where could we be in 12, 13 years from now?"
The Texas Education Agency hadn't responded to questions about timelines and appeal procedures by Tuesday night, but Charles told Prosper board members that TEA has 30 to 60 days to approve or veto an annexation. If the agency approves the annexation, Denton ISD has 30 days to file a suit to challenge the boundary change, Charles said.
Charles said he expects TEA to approve the boundary change, and if Denton ISD decided not to contest it or lost a suit, the boundary change would go into effect on July 1.
LUCINDA BREEDING-GONZALES can be reached at 940-566-6877 and cbreeding@dentonrc.com.
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