In 2014, students of Success High School will move out of portable classrooms and into a $25 million facility, which includes 22 classrooms, a 2,000-square-foot library, a food service kitchen and a child care facility that can accommodate 30 infants and 30 toddlers.
The two-story campus is 69,865 square feet in size and is located on 22 acres of land on the north side of Gattis School Road near I-35 just south of Voight Elementary School. Alan Albers, executive director of operations and facilities for the district, said the new address will be 500 Gattis School Road. Upon completion, which is expected to be July 15, 2014, the campus will have capacity for 336 students with room for an additional 100 with the extended day. The campus will also have more than 200 parking spots.
Thomasine Stewart, director of alternative education for SHS, said the new campus will allow the school to grow its curriculum and expand resources for its students, including a library and science lab. The new campus will allow more space for equipment and software, among other resources, she said.
"The exciting part of this is that coming out of the portables, we will be able to provide [the students] with group study work opportunities, more classroom experiences and truly deliver the core curriculum," Stewart said.
Stewart said the new campus will also allow for increased enrollment. SHS has 65 students on its wait list for fall, and she expects that list to grow by this summer.
"We have not been able to accommodate them because of our limitation in our size," she said.
To accommodate the growth of the school, SHS will most likely double its staff, Stewart said. Currently, it employs about 25 staff members, including counselors and educational assistants.
Background
SHS has been operating out of portable classrooms at Stony Point High School. When the new campus is completed, the portables will be distributed to other campuses in the district that need classroom space, Albers said. SHS is designed to help students that have unique class scheduling needs, are interested in accelerated courses, seek a nontraditional learning environment, or who are in at-risk situations obtain a high school diploma.
On Aug. 7, the RRISD school board approved the $25 million for SHS—which includes the design, construction, furniture and computers—with trustee Terri Romere the lone dissenter. At the meeting, Romere said that she supports the Success program but does not feel comfortable with spending $25 million.
The design for the campus was completed May 8. Albers said that he expects to recommend a contractor and contract amount for the project at the board's June 20 meeting.
For more information about SHS, visit https://schools.roundrockisd.org/success.