The district’s enrollment is expected to increase from 13,800 students to nearly 20,000 students over the next decade, according to data from Zonda Demographics.
The enrollment growth comes as housing developers are building around 2,000 new homes in the district each year, Zonda Demographics Vice President Bob Templeton said.
In 2024, GISD voters approved a $649.5 million bond package to fund the construction of High School No. 4, Middle School No. 5, Elementary School No. 12 and a new campus for Frost Elementary at the old Benold Middle School site.
High School No. 4 is GISD’s third comprehensive high school and will allow the district to keep Georgetown and East View high schools 5A campuses—with about 2,300 students or less—at the request of community members, Superintendent Devin Padavil said.
“We’re really positioning the school district well to handle the growth that’s going to happen over the next five to six years,” Padavil said. “Our schools are going to continue to grow, and we have to be able to make sure that our students and our faculty have facilities that take care of their needs.”
Zooming out
GISD’s enrollment grew by more than 3,000 students over the last decade, according to the Texas Education Agency. That growth is expected to more than double with GISD projected to gain 6,000 additional students over the next 10 years.
“Georgetown is going to be a fast-growth district for the foreseeable future,” Templeton said.
An abundance of undeveloped land has attracted developers to the Georgetown area, Templeton said. The district has around 3,150 vacant lots that are currently ready for builders to start developing and nearly 23,600 additional vacant lots planned for future developments. Additionally, more jobs have come online in Georgetown through new distribution centers and manufacturing companies.
GISD parent and alumna Laura Kincheloe said Georgetown’s supportive community and family-friendly environment are what attracted her and her husband to raise their family in GISD.
Zooming in
In October, the district is slated to break ground on High School No. 4 off DB Wood Road in west Georgetown.
The campus will be three stories tall and feature a central hub connected to different wings, GISD Chief of Construction Wes Vanicek said. The campus’s hallways will wrap around the football field and track, with the cafeteria located near the end zone, Padavil said. This design allowed the district to save millions on the $356 million campus, he said.
Construction for Elementary School No. 12 and Middle School No. 5 is about halfway complete ahead of the campuses’ 2026 openings, Vanicek said. The elementary campus is modeled after Wolf Ranch and Williams elementaries, while the middle school will mirror Wagner Middle School’s design, according to GISD information.
Open for this school year, the new Frost Elementary—located at the former Benold Middle School site—doubled the school’s capacity, Vanicek said.
Put in perspective
Without High School No. 4, GISD’s current high schools could have soon been reclassified as 6A campuses by the University Interscholastic League, school board President James Scherer said. Keeping GISD high schools as 5A campuses will give students greater opportunities to participate in sports and fine arts, he said.
“I want my kids to have an opportunity to participate and to engage,” Kincheloe said. “I think that having these new campuses gives students more opportunity to do that.”
The new 2024 bond-funded campuses will allow GISD to house fewer students in portables, which are currently at three campuses, Vanicek said.
Looking ahead
This school year, GISD will work on rezoning attendance boundaries to balance elementary school enrollment and prepare for the opening of Elementary School No. 12 and Middle School No. 5, Padavil said.
Middle School No. 5 is expected to pull students from parts of Mitchell and Williams elementaries, he said.
Going forward, Padavil said he expects to see future development in northeast Georgetown where there is much undeveloped farmland. The GISD board of trustees approved the purchase of a 188.7-acre lot in the northeast portion of the district at a July 21 meeting. The district has declined to disclose the site’s location until the sale is finalized.
What to expect
- August: Open the new Frost Elementary campus
- October: Begin rezoning for Middle School No. 5 and Elementary School No. 12, and break ground on High School No. 4
- February: Finalize new attendance zones for Middle School No. 5 and Elementary School No. 12
- Spring 2026: Hire principals for Middle School No. 5 and Elementary School No. 12
- Fall 2027: Hire a principal and begin rezoning process for High School No. 4
