In the fall of 2026, LHISD will open Lariat Trails Elementary, Legacy Ranch Middle School and the official campus for Legacy Ranch High School. District officials provided an update on the district’s rezoning process to create new attendance boundaries at a Dec. 15 meeting.
The big picture
The district will welcome ninth through 11th grade students at the official campus for Legacy Ranch High School off CR 258 in August. The district’s second high school first opened to incoming freshmen at the future Legacy Ranch Middle School campus in the 2024-25 school year.
LHISD may continue using US 183 as the attendance boundary line for its high school campuses—with students east of the highway going to Legacy Ranch High School and west of the highway going to Liberty Hill High School, interim Superintendent Travis Motal said. Motal has been named the lone finalist for the role and is expected to assume it in January.
Under the district’s current zoning proposal, Liberty Hill High School could stay under capacity over the next decade, Motal said. Legacy Ranch High School could near its capacity by the 2031-32 school year when the district may need to open its third high school, he said.
Under Plan A, Rancho Sienna and Tierra Rosa elementaries would feed into Santa Rita Middle School. Bar W, Santa Rita and Saddleback elementaries would attend Legacy Ranch Middle School.
LHISD will rezone elementary campuses to make way for the opening of Lariat Trails Elementary in August followed by the opening of Saddleback Elementary in August 2027.
The district will need to determine which students will go to Noble Elementary going forward, Motal said. Lariat Trails and Saddleback elementaries are expected to pull students from Noble Elementary, he said.
Additionally, the district will have to adjust the attendance boundary for Tierra Rosa Elementary, which opened in 2024, as the campus can no longer accommodate additional students, Motal said. The district closed enrollment to the campus in September and has sent new students to Santa Rita Elementary.
LHISD could consider rezoning the Oaks at San Gabriel neighborhood—currently zoned for Bar W Elementary— to Rancho Sienna or Tierra Rosa elementaries.
Motal also discussed trying to alleviate congestion on Hwy. 29, maintaining a clean split in feeder patterns using US 183, and how to provide bus transportation in areas where there are multiple attendance zones and a fewer number of students.
How we got here
Motal created the district’s first advisory committee of parents that met in October and December to inform the rezoning process.
In a November survey of over 2,000 people, 58.1% of respondents said the district should focus on ensuring all campuses had balanced enrollment numbers, while 41.9% said LHISD should focus on keeping students together from elementary through high school
The top three priorities for respondents were students’ academic programs, proximity to home and social connections, according to district documents. Respondents asked the district to minimize moves from current campuses, balance enrollment between campuses and minimize splits in neighborhoods among other requests.
Stay tuned
Community members can learn more about the rezoning process and provide feedback at an upcoming town hall meeting from 6-7:30 p.m. Jan. 13 at Liberty Hill Middle School and Jan. 15 at Legacy Ranch High School.
New elementary school attendance zones will be presented at a future board meeting, said Rachel Acosta, LHISD director of communications and community engagement.
The board is expected to vote on the approval of new attendance zones at its February meeting, according to LHISD documents.
