The district will soon begin construction on the district’s 40th elementary—the last new school funded by the 2014 bond package.

The KISD board of trustees unanimously approved a construction contract for the school at a March 28 meeting.

KISD Architect and Planner Peter McElwain presented the construction contract to the board of trustees at the March 21 work session meeting.

The school—Elementary School No. 40—is scheduled to open in August 2017, a year ahead of original plans to open in fall 2018, he said.

The change to the opening date was made in November after an update on enrollment projections from the district’s demographers, McElwain said.

“By building it a year early, it will help respond to the high enrollment growth in that portion of the district,” McElwain said.

The school will be located in Waller County, south of I-10, in the Young Ranch subdivision on Kingsland Boulevard and west of Pederson Road.

It will be designed to hold a capacity of 1,030 students.

The school will provide crowding relief for Wolman and WoodCreek elementary schools.

Elementary No. 40 is estimated to cost about           $31.7 million and is a “refined repeat design” of two new elementary schools currently under construction and opening in August—MayDell Jenks Elementary School and Catherine Bethke Elementary School.

The cost of the school will be $1.2 million less than what was originally projected in the original bond allocation, McElwain said.

Other schools opening in fall 2017 along with Elementary School No. 40 are Junior High School No. 15 and High School No. 8.

None of the schools have been named.