Spring ISD board of trustees announced several new facility plans at its Nov. 13 meeting, including the relocation of Spring Early College Academy to the Lone Star College-North Harris campus at 2700 W. W. Thorne Drive, Houston, in the 2019-20 school year. The district also announced plans to place a new, leadership-centered middle school at the former early college building on T.C. Jester Boulevard when the move is complete.

Spring Early College Academy moved from temporary buildings on Southridge Road into the T.C. Jester building in 2016 after it was acquired and renovated for the use of the school for about $6.3 million, officials said at the time. The early college, which opened in 2011 in partnership with LSC-NH, provides selected students with an opportunity to obtain college credit and graduate from high school with an associate degree in one of several fields.

The district has had the relocation of the school in mind as a goal since it launched its five-year plan, Every Child 2020, in 2015, said Lupita Hinojosa, chief of school leadership and student support services.

"We are one of the few early colleges in the state that does not sit on a community college," she said in an interview after the Nov. 13 meeting. "At a minimum this has been in four years in the making. ... [It was] a dream of the board."

LSC-NH has allocated an administrative area for SISD leaders and teachers as well as classrooms for freshmen and sophomores, who are not yet attending classes at the college, Hinojosa said.

"The great piece is the opportunity for students to have a full college experience and take advantage of resources [at LSC-NH]," Hinojosa said.

Middle School No. 9, which the board decided at its Nov. 8 work session will focus on leadership development, is part of SISD's current focus on strengthening its middle school program offerings, Superintendent Rodney Watson said. District officials conducted a listening tour to talk to families about what they would like to see in the district, and they indicated they wanted greater choice and opportunity at the middle school level, he said.

SISD has planned construction of two new middle school buildings with money from the $300 million bond passed by voters in 2016: Middle School No. 8, which will be located in the northern portion of the district near Northgate Crossing and Springwoods Village, and Roberson Middle School, an existing school of choice in the district. The former Roberson Middle School building will become a ninth-grade center also part of the 2016 bond package.

SISD also plans to offer an International Baccalaureate Program at Middle School No. 8, Watson said.

In other business at the board meeting trustees discussed a possible name for Middle School No. 8, narrowing the options to Northgate Crossing, Northside or Springwoods Village middle school. A name for the ninth middle school has not been proposed, but trustees said it could reflect the purpose of the building.