Dripping Springs ISD kicks off Long-Range Facility Planning Committee for 2019-20 school year

The Dripping Springs ISD's long-range facility planning committee has reconvened, holding its first meetings for the current school year Nov. 7 and Dec. 12. According to the DSISD website, the 70-member group is tasked with “planning for the next 5-10 years of student growth in Dripping Springs ISD.”

Nola Wellman, who was the district's interim superintendent at the time, announced the committee’s reinstatement at the board’s Oct. 30 meeting and said that a focus for the group would be deciding the size of future middle schools in the district.

“I was a middle school principal, so I will just honestly tell you that having a middle school of 800 is wonderful,” Wellman said. “[But] you have to think about the fact that you’re building schools continuously for a decade.”

With a growing district, Wellman said, building smaller schools could mean more construction and a heavier burden on taxpayers.

However, trustee Ron Jones emphasized that in the past, the community had expressed “absolute consensus” in their preference for smaller schools with a capacity of around 800 students.

The committee serves in an advisory capacity to the board of trustees and "is limited to factfinding, deliberation and reporting its findings to the Board, with no power to supervise or control public business or policy," according to district documents, meaning it is not subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act. The Texas Open Meetings Act requires public comment to be offered when a quorum of the board is present and votes are scheduled.

The committee's next meeting has been set for Jan. 16.