School districts prepare for future growth

According to Bartlett Cocke General Contractors, the contractor for the new school builds, both schools are approximately 50 percent complete.

LTISD Director of Communications Marco Alvarado said barring unforeseen circumstances, both schools could be done as early as May or June and will be ready in time for the 2014–15 school year.

Lancaster said once the new Lake Travis Middle School opens this fall, expansion of the high school into the space vacated by the middle school can begin.

Alvarado said the expansion is expected to take about 15 months, and the facility will not be exclusively a freshman building.

The estimated $20.6 million project will include an electronic media center in what is currently the LTMS courtyard.

Both schools are scheduled to be complete in time for the new school boundaries to go into effect, but Alvarado said projections have the new $25 million LTMS, which will house 1,200 students, at capacity in as little as one year.

Alvarado said the district has six tracts of undeveloped land along the Hwy. 71 corridor for future expansions, including one that has been talked about as a potential second high school. He said that plot, however, could end up becoming a third middle school to handle the increasing number of young children in the district.

Lancaster said the new schools and the new attendance zone boundaries will help maximize functional capacities for all of the district's facilities and accommodate the continued growth in student enrollment.

Eanes ISD bond discussions

Eanes ISD Superintendent Nola Wellman, along with members of the Facilities Master Plan Task Force, will visit all nine district campuses to present school-specific concepts of the plan and the future bond program to the community.

The Master Plan consists of a number of changes for each campus, including the addition of a western elementary school.

The district unveiled the estimates for the plan in November at $247 million, which would be paid for with the proposed bonds. The master plan could be done in as many as three phases.

Search for a superintendent

Wellman announced her retirement as EISD superintendent after 10 years on Nov. 21. The EISD board of supervisors hired Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates in December to facilitate the search for a new superintendent.

The board met with the firm Jan. 7 to outline the key characteristics and experiences most important to the board for a superintendent candidate to possess.

"With such a high-profile position in a highly acclaimed school district, we are committed to looking both inside and outside of Texas to find the best candidate," board President Rob Hargett said in a news release. "The process will be thorough, and the board wants to hear from the district's many stakeholders."

The board is expected to make a selection at the April 30 regular board meeting. Wellman officially retires in August.