Templeton also gave data regarding charter, private and virtual school programs that could have an impact on NISD and other area districts.
The details
Templeton began his presentation to the board by telling them Princeton ISD, a school district just to the east of McKinney, claimed the top spot in new home closing for the first quarter this year. However, Templeton said PISD won’t be first for long.
“They’ll stay in the spot for a very short duration of time just because they’re a small geographic district,” Templeton said.
Princeton ISD had 3,377 closings while NISD had 2,991 closings. However, in terms of future available lots, PISD has 9,387 while NISD has 41,955.
“I do expect NISD will jump back into that top spot within the next couple of quarters,” Templeton said.
In terms of NISD’s housing status, Templeton said there was “very strong activity” across the district. He included the following specifics:
- 70 actively building subdivisions
- 34 future subdivisions in various stages of planning
- Of these, groundwork is underway on more than 6,250 lots within 15 subdivisions
To provide context in terms of how NISD is growing compared to other districts in the state, Templeton provided annual changes in enrollment for Texas going back to the 2015-16 school year.
Templeton said that while enrollment growth in many districts across the state has not kept up with overall population growth in Texas, NISD continues to be one of the fastest-growing districts in the state and the fastest-growing district in Region 11 “by a long shot.”
“All in all, NISD has grown over 7,000 kids in the last five years, while Region 11, as a whole, has declined by about 4,000 students,” Templeton said.
Diving deeper
Templeton also talked about how increased enrollment in virtual schools, charter schools and private schools could impact the district, especially now that Gov. Greg Abbott signed the school voucher program into law May 3.
Templeton said that while virtual school enrollment across the state still only represents 1% of the total enrollment, it is growing.
“[The 2024-25 school year] saw its fastest growth when it went from 42,000 kids last year to over 57,000 kids this year,” Templeton said.
As far as charter school activity goes, Templeton said the growth has been steady since the first charter school opened in 1996. As of May 2025, there are 970 charter schools operating across the state.
“[Charter school enrollment] has gone from 336,000 in 2019 to this year about 435,000,” Templeton said.
He added the closest charter school to NISD is in the southern part of Keller ISD. The school, called Infinite Minds Charter School, is currently under construction.
Finally, Templeton touched on the state’s voucher program. He said that voucher programs are expanding across the country, with 11 states that already have voucher programs in place. Staff at Zonda Education researched the impact of the voucher program on private school enrollment in Florida, Ohio and Indiana. Since the 2015-16 school year to the current 2024-25 school year (Florida only has information through 2022-23) private school enrollment in Florida increased 29%, while Ohio and Indiana increased 24% and 18%, respectively.
“When we start to think about how [vouchers] could impact Texas, we can definitely see that they could have an impact of about 100,000 [students] at the very most,” Templeton said.
