For 14 years, many of Waco Independent School District’s top students have transferred from their neighborhood middle schools to ATLAS Academy, a gifted-and-talented magnet program within Tennyson Middle School.
Now concerns about equity and transportation are prompting Waco ISD officials to consider expanding GT services to G.W. Carver and Cesar Chavez middle schools.
Waco ISD Trustee Jeremy Davis, who lives in East Waco near Carver, said he is excited about the possible expansion, which district staff presented at a board meeting late last year.
“For me, this represented an opportunity to put real action behind the word equity,” Davis said via email on Friday. “Too often equity is something we say, this is something we can actually do.
“Expanding rigorous GT programming across all middle schools improves student experience, opens up more opportunities for advanced learners, and strengthens overall campus accountability. It positions our district for stronger outcomes long term.”
But officials are assuring ATLAS parents that their students won’t lose their spots in the coming school year, even as district officials study ways to “refresh” that school’s program.
The application period for ATLAS began Monday and runs through March 6 for fifth-graders who have been identified as gifted and talented or otherwise academically advanced. Current ATLAS sixth- and seventh-graders will be automatically re-enrolled.
Superintendent Tiffany Spicer clarified the district’s intentions in a letter to parents on Feb. 10, the day after a meeting that drew some 60 parents to learn about possible changes to the district’s GT programs. Some Tennyson parents later voiced frustration over the presentation, citing a lack of clarity.
District officials listed four options for the district’s GT and advanced academic programs:
- Refresh the ATLAS program at Tennyson,
- Refresh, rebrand and replicate the ATLAS program across all campuses,
- Use a hybrid model in which students are bused to Tennyson and return to their home campus for remaining services, similar to Greater Waco Advanced Manufacturing Academy and Greater Waco Advanced Health Care Academy, or
- Keep the program the same.
Waco ISD Trustee Taylor Bledsoe, who represents West Waco and has a daughter in the ATLAS program, attended the Feb. 10 meeting. In an email statement to The Waco Bridge on Feb. 12, he said, “Nothing changes for ATLAS students next year and no long-term decisions have been made.”
“We want to continue to listen to all of our stakeholders – parents, teachers and students – to make sure that we make the best decision for the long-term health of the district,” he said. “In my mind, the options listed are merely a starting place for a conversation. Whatever decision we make, the heart behind the decision will be offering robust GT programs to as many students as possible.”
Here is what parents need to know about GT and advanced academic programs in Waco ISD, based on interviews and correspondence with Waco ISD officials.
What is meant by gifted and talented and advanced academics?
“Advanced academics” is an “umbrella term” that includes but is not limited to students officially evaluated as being gifted and talented through testing and teacher referrals. Some teachers are specially trained in meeting the learning needs of GT kids.
At the middle school level, GT kids are often combined with other high-achieving students in advanced courses, such as pre-advanced core classes and high school credit opportunities. All Waco ISD middle schools offer those options.
What does the ATLAS program offer?
The ATLAS Academy includes pre-advanced courses in English, math, science, and social studies alongside an elective research class. The class uses a hands-on problem-solving curriculum called “New Minds,” and students participate in the Heart of Texas History Fair and Central Texas Science and Engineering Fair.
The ATLAS program has been at Tennyson since 2012 and was housed in a separate building at the old Tennyson campus. Students were able to take mini-courses in cooking, music and knitting. The program was started as an effort to retain advanced students who were transferring to private schools, school officials said.
How many students are in the ATLAS program, and where do they come from?
About 270. Of those, 158 transfer from other middle school attendance zones such as Carver or Chavez, while the remainder come from the Tennyson zone.
There are an additional 101 GT students from Carver and Cesar Chavez who were identified GT and not at ATLAS academy. Of those students, two-thirds are from Cesar Chavez and one-third are from Carver, said Paula Miller, Waco ISD director of advanced academics, during the parent meeting.
Another 94 students who are considered high-achieving and eligible for ATLAS do not attend, she said.
“You’re looking at maybe 200 kids in the district that are not getting to utilize everything that’s being offered,” Miller said.
Why is Waco ISD considering changing the program?
After the district changed attendance boundaries last summer due to the closure of Alta Vista Elementary School, Superintendent Spicer spent time listening to community members about their concerns.
The district began discussions about expanding the ATLAS program in October 2024. In December 2025, the district did a ThoughtExchange to gather feedback from families. One of the keywords that came up was access, Spicer said in an interview with the Bridge last week.
For families at Carver and Cesar Chavez middle schools, transportation can be a barrier. For example, Carver Middle School is 6.4 miles from Tennyson, and Cesar Chavez is 4.4 miles away.
Bus schedules often keep students from participating in extracurricular activities at their home campuses, officials said.
Waco ISD Board President Jose Vidaña’s daughters attended the ATLAS program when it first started in 2012. His daughters would eat breakfast at Cesar Chavez and take the bus to Tennyson. Due to having younger kids who needed to be driven to other schools, he and his wife were unable to drive them to Tennyson. Oftentimes, the bus would arrive on time or 10 minutes late, he said.
“We weren’t able to take the girls to school, and they missed out on playing sports,” Vidaña said in an interview with the Bridge.
When would the changes occur, and how much would they cost?
No changes would occur before this fall. Research elective classes could begin this fall at Carver and Chavez middle schools with sixth-graders, with a new grade added each year. Spicer said the district is focused on hearing parent feedback before making any decisions.
Officials say the district has enough staff to meet the needs of GT students at all campuses. However, it would have to hire an additional teacher at each middle school for the research component.
“We’re staffed already, because those kids are receiving the services,” Spicer said. “But like, I might have to add a couple bells and whistles, right? So everybody might need two, but I wouldn’t need 12. So it’s financially feasible if that’s the way we decide to go.”
Refreshing the existing ATLAS program is refreshed could expand beyond the research class to leadership, humanities or STEM options. The leadership component would include partnerships with local organizations so students would get hands-on experience.
“If we do something like that, it makes it exploratory to where students can have exposure to, what does it look like to be a leader, right?” Spicer said. “And what it looks like to serve and what does it look like to do these different things?”
Why was Lake Air Montessori Magnet School not included in the proposal?
Lake Air Montessori, which serves prekindergarten through eighth grade, already offers pre-advanced core courses in its middle school program as well as the AVID program, designed to prepare first-generation college students.
Waco ISD’s Advanced Academics department and Lake Air administration are working together to create connections between the AVID and research class coursework, officials said.
