Argyle ISD officials broke ground on the projects, which were part of the 2022 bond package and help facilitate the district’s 10-year strategic plan, which includes splitting into two high schools. After the split, both schools will use the new stadium, Superintendent Courtney Carpenter said.
“We are finally here,” Carpenter said. “It just shows how important extracurricular activities are to this district.”
The details
The stadium will seat 7,500 and will be located behind the AHS fieldhouse, and the existing artificial turf field and track will be used for the new stadium. The indoor activity center on campus will be utilized by multiple teams and student groups, according to district documents. The center will contain a small dressing area with showers, storage and restrooms, and will also double as the visitor locker room.
Additionally, high school athletes, who have to use the stadium and activity center at Argyle Middle School on US 377, will no longer have to travel. Once AISD splits into two high schools and the middle school is repurposed as a high school, those students will have access to the new stadium, and both will have individual indoor activity centers, Carpenter said.
Zooming in
The district awarded the building contract for the project to Pogue Construction on May 22 at an initial estimated cost of $46.1 million.
The price exceeds the preliminary $42 million cost outlined in the bond planning budget, Construction Manager Jeff Koehn said. As a result, the district approved measures that laid a pathway for reducing project costs toward the original amount.
These measures include removing a second elevator from the design plan and eliminating upscaled finishes in all three bathrooms for a cheaper and more basic restroom, said Marty Sims, principal of VLK Architects, a statewide firm with a history of designing schools and stadiums that designed the project for AISD. These brought the total bid to $45.8 million without compromising stadium size or number of seats. However, the district could possibly make additional changes and reductions once construction begins.
“We contracted with [Pogue Construction] for the higher amount right now, and then if there are pieces the district wants to pull out in favor of other things, we could look at those along the way,” Sims said.
Going forward
The stadium and activity center are scheduled to be completed in fall 2025. The site will undergo code-required inspections before construction begins, Koehn said. The projects still need to go before the Flower Mound Planning and Zoning Committee as well as Town Council, which will occur June 24 and July 1, respectively, Koehn said. Once these are completed, construction can begin.
The district will also break ground on the new middle school June 20, another 2022 bond project. The project has been working through zoning issues since January.
Editor's note: The original post has been edited to correct an error. The project will go before the Flower Mound Planning and Zoning Committee June 24.