This school year, Pearland ISD’s Robert Turner College and Career High School enrolled 1,200 students, which is nearly 100 percent of the campus’ 1,250 student capacity.
By the end of the 2017-18 school year, PISD Director of Facilities and Planning Don Tillis said the school will likely be at total capacity.
“Usually as the year goes along, we are projected to go right at capacity for this year,” Tillis said. “Last year, we were pretty close also.”
Many PISD schools are operating at more than 90 percent of capacity, Superintendent John Kelly said.
Turner High School opened in August 2013 as a campus geared toward college readiness through Advanced Placement, dual-credit coursework and vocational certifications. However, Turner is not a feeder campus; students must choose to attend. Students go through an application and interview screening process prior to enrollment.
“This is a high school that is based on demand,” Tillis said. “[High enrollment] is a little bit of a factor with growth, but it’s really a factor of whether or not kids want to go there.”
Because capacity is based on interest, it is difficult to project future capacity, said Kim Hocott, PISD executive director of communications.
The $220 million bond approved in 2016 will provide three new vocational classroom spaces for culinary, welding, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning classrooms. The bond will also pay for renovations at the Richard L. Wagoner Agricultural Facility, although that work will not increase student capacity, Tillis said. All additions to Turner are in the design phase.
“I feel certainly it will increase capacity of those programs, so by that measure, it will increase capacity,” Director of Bond Program Construction John Posch said.
Adding the welding, culinary and HVAC classrooms increases the number of students who can be enrolled in those programs. The programs are open to all PISD students, not just those enrolled at Turner. However, none of the bond-funded expansions at Turner address core classroom space.
The additional classroom space is expected to nudge up capacity by 125-150 students for a total capacity of 1,400 students. By comparison, Pearland High School had nearly 3,000 students and Dawson High School had roughly 2,500 students during the 2016-17 school year, according to PISD’s May enrollment report.
PISD is still in the midst of deciding what steps to take if Turner hits capacity before the bond is finished.
“We are having those discussions,” Hocott said.
According to Hocott, wait-listing students, creating new applications, using portable classrooms and turning away enrollment from outside the district are all possibilities.
PISD has other options for career and technical education for students unable to enroll, Hocott said. All high school students have access to career and technical education at Pearland and Dawson high schools.
Editor's note: The story was updated to reflect that all PISD high school students attending their feeder campus have access to career and technical education at their respective campus.
