CISD closer to calling fall bond election
Growth prompts district to plan for south county building boom
The rapid population growth that The Woodlands-area schools are facing will be reflected on the ballot as the Conroe Independent School District is expected to announce in August that it is calling for a November bond election.
CISD is expected to allocate some of the bond funds to build a new high school in the Oak Ridge feeder zone that will be able to hold 3,000 students.
Although CISD has not released any cost estimates for the bond, the school district already has acquired about 37 acres, is negotiating to buy another 40 acres of adjacent real estate, and has selected an architect and a construction manager at risk for the proposed high school. The latter was selected during a board meeting on April 21.
In 2008, voters passed a $526.7 million bond for CISD.
“The feedback that we’ve received at this point is the need to have an additional school so the kids can have somewhere to go. I think that people understand that it’s a very fast growing population,” said CISD Superintendent Don Stockton.
The district hasn’t closed on the $5.7 million
deal for the acquisition of 37 acres off Riley Fuzzel Road from Toll Houston TX LLC. It is currently in the due diligence phase before closing, which includes a boundary survey, environmental assessment, geotechnical investigation, a wetland study, a traffic study and title search.
The district is preemptively addressing a future “crowding-out” issue in the district. Though it has 60 campuses that serve about 56,000 students, CISD’s 381-page demographic study has identified some schools that are approaching 20 percent overcapacity as early as next year.
“Being a fast-growth district and building as many schools as we build, we find its critical to have a long-term plan, and we’ve been able to do that through our last bond issues,” Stockton said. “So long-term planning is critical when you think about what it takes to plan and build a building.”
One of the growth areas is Oak Ridge. Without a second high school to reduce the pressure on the current 3,800-student Oak Ridge high school and ninth grade campus, CISD’s study projects that it will be at 141 percent capacity by the fall of 2024. The district currently adds about 1,500 students to area schools each year.
CISD organized a facility planning committee to advise its board of trustees on the potential November bond. Details on the bond are expected to come out of committee this summer. The committee was formed in February and comprises parents, business leaders and other community members. The 20 members have, so far, met three times to discuss current infrastructure needs and anticipate the district’s future needs three to five years out.
“We try to make sure that we’re providing the best educational opportunity for all of our kids at the most effective efficient price point and cost per student,” said Joe Michels, a member of the facility planning committee who has served on every CISD bond committee since 2001.
From IT to HVAC to security, the advisory group takes a holistic approach to diagnosing the district’s critical focus areas, whether it be for new or existing infrastructure. The board of trustees will take the proposal from the committee and will make adjustments as needed before officially calling for a bond election.
“I’ve never been on a facility planning committee where there was a ‘Well, I’m for Oak Ridge, or I’m for The Woodlands, or I’m for Conroe,’” Michels said. “It has historically been just a group of people with a singular focus: What’s going to be in the best interest of our kids, who are going to be enrolled in the district.”
Ongoing capital improvement projects in CISD includes Oak Ridge Ninth Grade campus, which includes a new front office and classrooms that will be completed by the fall of 2015, and a mechanical rehabilitation of Oak Ridge Elementary.
CISD is just one of many districts in Montgomery County experiencing growth. Other neighboring school districts already have received voter approval for their bond issues at the polls on May 9. Just south of The Woodlands, voters approved a $498.1 million Klein Independent School District bond as well as Montgomery Independent School District’s $256.75 million bond and New Caney Independent School District’s $173 million bond.
Conroe Independent School district serves about 56,000 students across 60 campuses.