When Doss Elementary School was built in 1970, it was designed to accommodate 543 students. But as population in the Northwest Hills neighborhood around the elementary school has grown, the building became too small to adequately serve its students.The 2017-18 enrollment at Doss is 832, well over the site’s capacity. As part of Austin ISD’s $1.05 billion bond referendum approved by voters in November 2017, the Doss campus will be rebuilt and modernized. Students, teachers, administrators and AISD officials celebrated the ground breaking of the $43 million project at Doss on Thursday morning. “It’s not just about adding a wing. It’s not about putting some more paint on it. It’s not just about putting up another sidewalk. It’s about creating new, fully modernized, 21st-century learning spaces for our students,” AISD Superintendent Paul Cruz said. The AISD bond will fund 17 modernized campuses across the district, where changes will include more collaborative space and technological upgrades intended to help students better prepare for the future. “Thank you so much to Austin ISD and the Austin ISD leadership for recognizing our students deserve more than just a new building; they deserve a true modernized school that lives up to the challenge of 21st-century learning,” Doss Principal Janna Griffin said. Doss is expected to reopen in August 2020. Until then, the school is located temporarily at the former Lucy Read Pre-Kindergarten School, located about three miles away from the Doss campus. When Doss students return from their temporary home to the original campus, the former Lucy Ready building will become the new location of the Rosedale School, which serves AISD students with special needs.