Conroe ISD will open three new schools by August 2018 to accommodate the rapidly growing Grand Parkway area of the district, which could make the remaining undeveloped land in southeast CISD more attractive for future development.

The district has several developable areas in its 345 square miles, and the Grand Parkway area is quickly becoming more promising as land values increase, CISD Planning and Construction Director Easy Foster said.

“Just take where we’re building Grand Oaks [High School], for example—20 years ago nobody would have thought they’d be building houses down there,  much less any schools,” Foster said. “The development hurdles have lowered themselves to the point where the values have come up, so that makes it easier to build—so long as you can afford it—in that area.”

Bradley Elementary School will be the first of three new schools to open in August. A new, unnamed intermediate school and Grand Oaks High School will open in August 2018.

“Chances are, if the growth continues, we will be needing to build even more schools,” CISD board President Melanie Bush said.

Population increase

With the addition of several new neighborhoods, such as Woodson’s Reserve and Harmony, near the Grand Parkway in Spring, a surge of new students in the area have made new schools a necessity, Bush said.

CISD officials estimated the district would grow by approximately 1,400 students at the start of the 2016-17 school year, Bush said. The district actually grew by about 1,900 students. As of April 20, the student population in CISD totaled 60,085—up from 58,239 in the 2015-16 school year.

A population survey conducted for CISD’s 2015 bond referendum indicated that Snyder, Broadway and Birnham Woods elementary schools would have a combined student population of about 5,000, Bush said. This is nearly 2,000 students over capacity.

“That’s why we went ahead and built Bradley Elementary,” Bush said. “It’s very possible that in the next 5-10 years, we’ll be adding more elementary schools and more intermediate schools.”

The Falls at Imperial Oaks, Harmony, Woodson’s Reserve and Benders Landing Estates are among the largest neighborhoods along the Grand Parkway that fall into Grand Oaks High School’s feeder zone and have room for growth, according to a study performed by the Population and Survey Analysts demographics firm.

The study, which was completed in January 2015, estimates that in 2015-19, The Falls at Imperial Oaks is projected to have a total of 1,027 homes built. By 2024, the subdivision could have as many as 2,230 homes built.

In 2015-19, Harmony and Woodson’s Reserve are projected to have a total of 526 and 330 homes built, respectively. By 2024, Harmony could have 911 homes, and Woodson’s Reserve could have 890 homes. Benders Landing also has room to grow with an estimated increase of 214 homes by 2024, according to the PASA study.

“You can see where Harmony still has room to grow, and Woodson’s Reserve still has room to grow,” CISD’s Deputy Superintendent of Operations Chris Hines said.  “Benders Landing still has a lot [of room]. I anticipate that we’ll need another school in the future in that area—I just don’t know when.”

Although several areas of CISD are experiencing growth, the southeast area of the district near the Grand Parkway is growing the most rapidly, CISD Superintendent Don Stockton said.

Through planning and passage of the $487 million 2015 bond referendum, the district allotted funds for the new high school, intermediate school and two elementary schools in the current Oak Ridge High School feeder zone.

“There are always challenges with growth because you have to plan schools, prepare bond issues, and the community needs to support a bond issue,” Stockton said. “You need to design the schools, zone the schools and hire the teachers. There’s a lot involved with that. We do that on a regular basis, so we’ve gotten pretty efficient, and we’ve had good results.”

Planning ahead

CISD takes steps to ensure schools are not too far above or below capacity, Hines said. However, the district takes a conservative approach to adding schools.

“We’re very conservative,” Hines said. “We typically wait until our schools are really full before we build a new school. It also gives us time to see if we’re losing enrollment somewhere. Taxpayers expect us to make good use of our facilities, but we try not to open a school overflowing.”

Bradley Elementary School will open under capacity by 227 students in August, Hines said. The limit for overcrowding at any school in the district is when it reaches 125 percent capacity, Bush said. The school will open with an estimated 773 students, alleviating the student populations at neighboring Birnham Woods, Broadway and Snyder elementary schools, which were at 116 percent, 115 percent and 107 percent capacity, respectively, when the new attendance boundary lines were being drawn for Grand Oaks High School in late 2016 and early 2017.

The new intermediate school will open with an estimated enrollment of 697, redistributing students at Vogel and Cox intermediate schools. Although Vogel is currently under capacity, Cox Intermediate was at 131 percent capacity as of January.

Grand Oaks High School will host approximately 2,420 students by 2020 when the school will have freshman through senior classes, rezoning students from Oak Ridge High School, which was at 103 percent capacity, as of January.

A fourth new campus that is still in the planning stages for grades K-6 is also slated to open in 2019.

“We don’t see growth stopping, but we are always watching our trends to make sure we’re not building buildings we can’t fill,” Bush said.

Although more developments create the necessity for new schools, demographic studies indicate steady patterns that align with new communities, Hines said.

“When we have a newer community, we have a spike in enrollment, and then over time it declines and levels off,” Hines said.  “We know that, so we plan to go over because we know it will come back down somewhere, so we just have to wait and see a little bit.”

Although some schools in CISD may reach the 125 percent capacity threshold, the district hires enough teachers based on the number of students to comply with the Texas Education Agency’s mandate stating class sizes are not to exceed 22 students in kindergarten through fourth grade, Stockton said.

“Even if we didn’t open a new school, we’d still have to hire that many teachers for the number of students, we just put them in different places,” Stockton said.

Development opportunities

The completion of the Grand Parkway segments F-1, F-2 and G—which connected Hwy. 290 to Hwy. 59 when they were completed in March 2016—has attracted commercial and residential development, resulting in the need for CISD to add schools. However, Holcomb Properties President Jim Holcomb anticipates more commercial developments will be added as a result of the schools being completed.

“[Parents] will want their children to attend schools that are close to the Grand Parkway and that acreage," Holcomb said. "It depends on the market conditions for housing, but my view is all that will get developed.”

Aside from the new schools that are under construction as well as the planned K-6 campus along the Grand Parkway corridor, there are no plans for additional campuses in the immediate future, Foster said. However, he said the district is always looking out for school sites to stay ahead of population growth trends.

“When we’re looking for sites, we always try to look for the easiest build, but we also try to work with the local developers because they like to have good schools in their development areas,” Foster said.

As the land along the Grand Parkway becomes more desirable and more schools are added, more commercial developments are slated to pop up, Holcomb said. Construction on the Capital Retail Properties development, Birnham Woods Marketplace, is underway. A Kroger Marketplace location, PetSmart and a Kumon tutoring center are among the verified tenants.

“The Grand Parkway completion has opened up a lot of new land," Holcomb said. "There will be a lot more commercial property that will be built. I think it’s all very positive for that part of the Grand Parkway area in CISD.”

As growth in CISD continues, district officials will continue keeping tabs on the student population, Stockton said.

“It’s something we do on a daily basis,” Stockton said. “We watch our enrollment everyday, and we look at our projections to make sure we’re positioned well in the future.”