The plan addresses the district's rapid growth and outlines construction of new schools to accommodate the increased enrollment over the next decade. The recent revisions focused on the guiding parameters and amended parts of the high school configuration plan.
The details
The district has grown 13% in student enrollment since the end of the 2021-22 school year. In 10 years, the district is expected to serve nearly 12,000 students. This increase in enrollment continues to create a need for additional instructional space to serve students, per district documents.
Originally, there were plans to convert the existing middle school off US 377 into a second high school as a strategy to mitigate capacity issues once Argyle High School approached Class 6A University Interscholastic League classification status. However, with the new revisions, AISD will split into two high schools prior to reaching the classification, Superintendent Courtney Carpenter said. The UIL performs reclassifications and realignments every two years to determine the district level in which a school's athletic teams can compete. Class 6A is the state’s largest classification, and district community members have spoken out against large graduating classes since 2022.
Additionally, the board approved the revision to align the future high school split in the middle of the two-year UIL realignment, as determined most appropriate for student success, Carpenter said.
“The middle of an alignment is where you should enter into,” she said. “Because then you have the advantage of getting everybody acclimated.”
This is especially impactful for football, which cannot enter into a new district in the middle of a two-year alignment. Therefore, were the district to open a school at the beginning of an alignment, it would have to either run a varsity football schedule with only ninth and 10th graders for two years or go without varsity football altogether, Carpenter said.
Also of note
AISD administration will continue to analyze and determine the most appropriate time for the high school split, Carpenter said. By summer, the district will have a better indication of exactly when it will approach Class 6A status.
The board and district officials made no revisions to the plans for additional elementary and middle schools, but the decision to delay the high school split prompted the board to add capacity projects to the US 377 campus in the recently approved bond package slated for election this spring.
“Our final enrollment numbers don’t change; the variable is when some of those enrollment numbers happen,” Carpenter said. “So that's why we continue to semiannually review our plan.”
