Hundreds of Missouri City students could be attending different schools by fall 2027 if Fort Bend ISD's proposed boundary overhaul wins board approval this October.

The district's online community survey on the rezoning plan closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30. The survey is available at fortbendisd.gov/attendanceboundaries or through an email link sent to primary parents and guardians in Skyward.

Elkins High School in Missouri City is one of three overcrowded high schools driving the boundary review, along with Stephen F. Austin High in Sugar Land and Travis High in Richmond. Deputy Superintendent Chief of Staff Beth Martinez told the school board at its Aug. 17 workshop that the effort also targets "splits," where students from one elementary feed into multiple middle schools or a middle school feeds into multiple high schools.

"We have multiple splits as we stand now," Martinez said. "The focus of this work was to look at how we could relieve those three high schools and how we could best align those feeder patterns to keep those splits at minimal."

Nine middle schools are also under review, including three in the Missouri City area: the newly opened Amy Coleman Middle School, Lake Olympia and Billy Baines. Six others in Sugar Land and Four Corners round out the list.

The district confirmed in an Aug. 18 press release that no schools will close as part of the process. That assurance comes five months after the board voted in March to shutter seven elementary campuses, citing declining enrollment and budget pressures.

Superintendent Marc Smith said the district faces enrollment uncertainty from students leaving for the state's education savings account voucher program and from families relocating out of state or to other districts. After the seven elementary closures, 86% of affected students returned to FBISD for the current school year, according to Smith.

The enrollment picture is stark. Last year's kindergarten class of nearly 400 students was the smallest FBISD has seen in close to 20 years, district officials said. Demographic analyst Stacy Tapara told the board that in the past five years, fewer kindergarten students have enrolled in Fort Bend ISD than there were births in the district five years prior, reversing a longstanding pattern where in-migration and out-migration roughly balanced.

FBISD's annual demographic report attributed the decline to falling birth rates and a growing number of families choosing charter and private schools.

The School Boundary Advisory Committee has been reviewing enrollment projections and campus utilization data since May. According to Houston Public Media, the board is expected to vote on final boundary changes by October, with new zones taking effect for the 2027-28 school year.

The survey closes Sunday, Aug. 30.