CISD bracing for rapid student growth
The school district may surpass 75,000 students over the next five years — over 10 percent more than now
CONROE — More than double the number of new students expected enrolled in the Conroe Independent School District this school year, as the area continues to experience a population boom that requires adding new facilities.
CISD added four new elementary schools and a new junior high in its 2019 bond package, along with six classroom addition projects at multiple campuses. Already the district is planning on more campuses in the near future as the local population continues to grow and the students populating the new elementary schools grow up.
The district may surpass 75,000 students over the next five years — more than 10 percent growth from the current enrollment of 68,000 students, according to projections provided to the school board earlier this month.
The last time the district did a demographic study was 2018. The area has changed drastically since then and the district has had to rezone several campuses. To have better data the district will need a new demographic study soon.
One of the issues that the district is dealing with is capacity. Currently, district facilities are at a 97 percent capacity. But some campuses — including Stewart and Snyder elementaries — are as much as 133 percent over capacity. The opening of Gordon Reed Elementary this August will give both of those schools some relief.
“When we operate at the level of capacities that we are currently operating at we have very little cushion in our capacities,” said Chris Hines, deputy superintendent. “We either have to redraw the boundaries annually, or rely on portable classrooms, and we all know there’s a pain threshold associated with just continuously rezoning families. It also gets complicated when we’re trying to keep people in the same feeder pattern.”
The district uses 203 portable classrooms total to serve 4,400 students. That’s around four elementary schools worth of students in portables, which are not supposed to be a permanent fix and come with their own concerns regarding safety and weather.
Hines described the district as “portable dependent.” The reality is that the district is going to be dependent on portables for a while because they are an inevitable part of growth, even as they become more expensive. A used double portable costs around $175,000.
The priority, Hines said, should be Conroe High School, which is projected to have an enrollment of around 5,100 students next year, and be close to 7,000 students by 2028. Currently, CHS is in the midst of a makeover that is expected to be finished in 2025 and will add around 900 seats to the campus.
A new high school in the Conroe area will be needed soon to meet demand. But even with a new high school, Hines said, it will still be crowded at the high school level in the Conroe area.
Based on current projections, the district will need one high school with 3,200 capacity in the next six years..