Garland ISD will start accepting applications for its open enrollment next week, allowing students who live outside of the Garland ISD attendance zone to attend the district, tuition-free.
It's a move that Mechelle Hogan and her son Bentley plan to utilize.
Mechelle lives near Lancaster but works in Garland. Rather than dropping him off at school near home, super early, she's decided to take him with her and enroll him in Garland ISD near her office.
"The reason I brought him with me is so I can be on his same schedule so I could go to his luncheon in the middle of the day, go see his Thanksgiving parade, class parties and be a room mom," said Hogan
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Normally you can only send your kids to the district where you live, but more schools are opening their borders, letting parents out of the district apply to come in. Grand Prairie ISD and Irving ISD offer similar programs.
Garland ISD previously offered it to their employees like Mechelle, now they're opening it to everyone.
"Since we have open seats why not fill them with people who are going to meet our criteria, it's not going to be just anybody who wants to come in," said Dr. Ricardo Lopez, Superintendent, Garland ISD. "We border so many other districts sometimes our schools are closer than their schools, so they might be in a nice distance but not in our GISD boundaries. Now they can come to our school."
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Mechelle is a room mom and pops in whenever she can to help her son's teacher. She's never late for parent-teacher conferences and says this decision is one all parents should consider.
"Think about the time you will save, and time is very precious now," she said.
"If you could save two hours a day over the course of five to seven days a week... that's a shift at any job. You can take that time and spend that time on your family."
