The LHISD board of trustees approved official names for the district’s eighth and ninth elementary schools at a Sept. 15 board meeting. Additionally, the board approved design services to expand Bill Burden, Rancho Sienna and Santa Rita elementaries to accommodate up to 1,000 students each.
What you need to know
Lariat Trails Elementary will open for the 2026-27 school year in the Lariat master-planned community. In 2024, the board approved building the 108,416-square-foot school with a capacity for 1,000 students, which is 200 more students than its current elementary campuses.
Saddleback Elementary will open in the Saddleback at Santa Rita Ranch community in the 2027-28 school year. PBK Architects will design the 113,383-square-foot school similarly to Tierra Rosa Elementary, which opened in August 2024, with an increased capacity to accommodate 1,000 students.
What’s new
The board approved $617,500 in design services from VLK Architects to expand Bill Burden Elementary and $980,000 in design services from Pfluger Architects to expand Rancho Sienna and Santa Rita elementaries.
By the summer of 2027, LHISD will increase the capacity of these campuses to serve 1,000 students each to save money amid its fast enrollment growth, district officials said. The expansions will allow LHISD to avoid building a new campus, which would cost the district around $1.5-$2 million per school, Director of Construction Dustin Akin said.
The projects will be funded by the district’s 2021 bond package. The district does not have any remaining funds from its 2023 bond to build new elementaries beyond Saddleback Elementary, Akin said.
What they’re saying
“If we could have all of our schools at roughly the same capacity, it would help long-term with the district,” Interim Superintendent Travis Motal said. "It allows you to keep your attendance boundaries and your staffing at a much better formula than having all of them at different sizes.”
