Georgetown ISD students as well as school district, city and county officials gathered April 14 to break ground on the district's fourth middle school.[/caption]

Georgetown ISD students, administrators and members of the board of trustees gathered April 14 to break ground on the district's next middle school.

The project is part of a $160.6 million bond approved by voters in November.

Funds for the middle school campus were initially included in the 2010 bond, which allocated $28 million for the design, planning and construction of the building. The campus was put on hold to complete other projects so the district allocated $27 million out of the 2015 funds for its construction, said Suzanne Marchman, GISD executive director of community engagement and communications.

The two-story, 173,000-square-foot school will be built next to Mitchell Elementary School, which is located in southeast Georgetown near Rockride Lane and SE Inner Loop.

Executive Director of Support Services David Biesheuvel said the campus will hold up to 1,000 students and was designed to support student learning for multiple decades with flexible learning spaces that can be configured as standard classrooms or opened up for large collaborative learning areas.

"Every aspect of the building, every aspect of that design, had the kids in mind," he said.

GISD Superintendent Fred Brent said the option to create learning space will meet the needs of students in the classrooms. He said was excited for the future of the school.

"We all know that this part of the community is growing and is going to continue to grow, and the voters willingness to approve these bonds to move with the population growth that we're receiving to secure the instructional future of our kids is just an amazing testimony to the vision of this community," Brent said.

Marchman said the district hopes to hire a principal for the middle school in the next few months. The campus will be open for students in fall 2017.