District to reopen elementary it closed in 2011
Fifth-graders won’t have to go to middle schools as a result.
Fifth-graders will no longer attend middle schools in Hutto starting in August, as the school district reopens an elementary school it closed in 2011 to save money after the state slashed education fund- ing.
“It really is a sign — a sign we’re growing again; it’s a sign that financially, we’re in a better place,” Superintendent Doug Killian said.
It took a lot to get there. The district had to get leaner as its budget went from $53 million to $37 million from 2010 to 2011. It closed then3-year-old Veterans’ Hill and moved fifth-graders to middle schools to make room at the remaining elementary schools. Then, in 2012, voters gave the OK to increase taxes by 13 cents per $100 in property value. Last year more money started flowing from the state — though still not as much as the district got before the 2011 cuts.
Now district officials say Hutto can again afford the extra $900,000 or so it will cost annually to operate the school. The school district’s annual budget stands at $42 million. With enroll- ment growing about 6 percent a year, the district is likely to need the extra space — and will probably need more soon. Even after reopening Veterans’ Hill, officials expect at least one elementary to be over capacity by next school year. All five of the district’s elementary schools are projected to top their capacities by 2017.
The district has voter ap-
proval to issue another $88 million in bonds, but it doesn’t have the debt capacity to actually spend it. Before the recession, the district was building schools almost annually, and it hit a state limit of 50 cents per $100 of land value on the portion of its tax bill that can go toward paying off that debt.
When the recession hit, commercial growth in the city stopped, even though people kept moving to town, just at a slower rate. Officials said the district’s tax base would need to grow by $445 million to build a new elementary school. They’re hoping businesses move in; just a few big stores, like H-E-B or Kohl’s, would make up the difference, officials said.
Until it can start building again — probably about three years from now, Killian said — the district will have to use portables. Three of Hutto’s elementary schools have two portables with two classrooms each. The district will probably have to buy four more — at $50,000 to $80,000 apiece — by the 2015 school year.
A survey of 366 people in the district — mostly parents and staff — showed that most supported the move to reopen Veterans’ Hill and put fifth-graders back in elementaries, even if it meant adding portables.
But the development could still come and free up the district to start building again. Killian said things have started to pick up. Several neighborhoods that were empty lots now have homes on them. Restaurants and retail tend to follow those rooftops.
“It really all depends on how fast the development moves,” Killian said.