Alvin ISD is in the early stages of 13 projects that were approved in November as part of a $245 million bond referendum. Nearly 60 percent of voters cast their ballots in favor of the proposal, which came two years after a successful $212 million bond.

All of the 2015 bond projects targeted campus overcrowding and projected future student population growth, district officials said. The package features the construction of five new schools, including a new junior high and four elementary schools—where AISD is experiencing the biggest strain on campus facilities, officials said.

“Alvin ISD [grew] by approximately 1,300 students in the last year,” AISD Assistant Superintendent Daniel Combs said. “With that comes many challenges, [such as] making sure we have adequate instructional spaces to accommodate our students. The community of Alvin ISD obviously acknowledged that challenge as well when they approved the November 2015 bond.”

While each of the 13 projects is at a different stage in the construction process, the district’s building programs department has started plans for all of them, according to Combs. Officials expect the first of the 2015 projects—Elementary School No. 17, Elementary School No. 18 and Phase 2 of the Career and Technical Education Center—to begin construction in March.

Many, but not all, of the project locations have been determined, officials said. The board of trustees passed a measure Jan. 12 to negotiate for approximately 95 acres of land in the Meridiana master-planned community in Manvel for the new district stadium and satellite transportation center.

One of the recently approved elementary schools and the junior high school will be in Pearland’s Shadow Creek Ranch development.

Meanwhile, many of the 2013 projects are near completion, Combs said. Bill Hasse Elementary School, Meridiana Elementary School and Shadow Creek High School—the district’s third comprehensive high school and first in Pearland—will open this fall.