Work under way on ‘educational village’
Cy-Fair ISD plans to build schools for elementary, secondary students at site
The Cy-Fair school district has begun construction on a new “educational village” in Bridgeland, a master-planned community in Cypress.
Located east of the Grand Parkway, west along Mason Road and south of Bridgeland Creek Parkway, the multischool site will give students and teachers at various grade levels access to common resources.
The 127.8-acre campus was purchased for under $13.6 million on July 31, said Roy Sprague, the district’s associate superintendent of facilities.
The first phase of construction includes building High School 12 and Elementary School 55, with both slated for completion in August 2017. The second phase will focus on building a middle school.
Sprague said crews are already moving dirt, installing utilities and working on drainage at the site.
The campus, designed by IBI Group Architects and totaling about 1 million square feet, is the second of its type in the district.
The first is at 7425 Westgreen Blvd. and will serve grades 9-12 with later plans for an elementary and middle school.
“It’s a unique design and a different solution,” Sprague said. “All three buildings are close together.”
He said that the educational village design allows students and teachers to work together more readily.
“It offers a lot more opportunities for mentorship,” he said. “It gives us a lot of opportunities that we didn’t have before simply because the buildings were separate.”
With a construction cost of $127.64 million, High School 12 will be a standalone building on the north side of the site, with its own kitchen and common area. The design will feature a four-story academic wing and a four-story atrium.
“Within the learning areas, we try to provide flexible spaces where students can work on projects outside of the classroom,” Sprague said. “We try to create various spaces so our instructional teams can work with students and give them more opportunities.”
For example, next to the stairwells will be a tiered seating area that can become a place for lectures or group work.
Sprague added that having a four-story high school reduces the distance students have to walk, eliminating the long hallways that can be a challenge to navigate in the short time between classes.
“We really hope with this design concept, we will minimize the problem of being late to class,” Sprague said.
Green space will separate the high school from the middle and elementary schools.
The two-story elementary school and three-story middle school will share a commons area, with walls that can be moved to either side to divide the space or be removed to provide more room.
“We can open up the walls for a very large space that can be used by the campus and the community for events,” Sprague said. “It will easily accommodate a large crowd and provide flexible space for the campus.”
The middle and elementary schools will share a kitchen.
“Having a central kitchen will help with the number of employees we need,” Sprague said. “We can be more efficient by having everything together. It saves on operational costs and also saves us on construction.”
He added that building multiple campuses at the same time enables volume purchases that reduce material costs for the district. Building a parkway
Bridgeland is providing temporary access to the construction site, while developers complete work on Bridgeland Creek Parkway, a major thoroughfare that will reach the campus.
Construction on the parkway and Mason Road, expected to be completed by mid-next year, will improve access to the campus.
Bridgeland is home to Pope Elementary School. Bridgeland will eventually cover parts of three school districts — Cy-Fair, Katy and Waller.
The education plan for the community includes sites for preschool and private and public schools, said Peter Houghton, vice president of master planned communities for Bridgeland.
The development also hopes to open a university center or satellite location near its Town Center and to provide easy access to continuing educational courses.
“This is a great start on our overall educational master plan,” Houghton said.
He said the educational village will be an asset for the community.
“It’s the latest thing in educational concepts,” he said. “The synergy the district is going to obtain in this campus is going to be unusual and will hopefully contribute to higher academic performance in all three schools.”
Houghton said parents will take comfort in being able to send their children to one campus from kindergarten to high school.
The school will also be adjacent to Houston’s First Baptist Church in Bridgeland. Houghton said the hope is that the parking lots of both could be shared and that the church and district are working on a parking agreement. Multiple projects
The educational village is one of a number of projects under way in the CyFair ISD — all made possible by passage of a $1.2 billion bond referendum in May.
New facilities planned to accommodate increasing enrollment will include two elementary schools, a middle school, an agricultural facility, transportation center and a competition swimming pool at Pridgeon Stadium with seating for 1,500.
To reduce construction costs, the district was able to combine some projects to take advantage of volume pricing and lower expenses, Sprague said.
“It is more cost-effective, and our job is to make sure we maximize taxpayer dollars and to create the best learning environment for our students,” he said.
The strategy was used for the renovation of Pridgeon Stadium and the construction of the natatorium, which will be located on the same property.
In the past year, a new concrete parking lot was installed. Crews are waiting for the end of football season to begin work on the stadium and will complete the renovations in time for next year. In the meantime, work will continue on the natatorium.
Crews are also working on major additions and renovations to Adam and Bane elementary schools, as well as to Dean and Watkins middle schools.