School bond helps address crowding

School bond helps address crowding

By Amy Stansbury Friday, 05 December 2008

Steady growth in Round Rock Independent School District has resulted in crowding at some schools. The district aims to keep schools at 124 percent capacity or less, but this year, one middle- and two elementary schools are at more than 125 percent of their capacities. And when Cedar Ridge High School opens in the fall of 2010, all five high schools in the district are still expected to be at 100 percent capacity.

The $293.9 million school bond that passed in the November election will help RRISD address overcrowding, but Catherine Hanna, 2008 Citizens Bond Study Committee co-chair and Classrooms 4 Kids Political Action Committee co-chair, said the 2008 bonds only cover the absolutely critical projects. She said the district is still trying to catch up from a proposed bond that failed in 2005. No bonds were issued from 2000 to 2006, and the district grew by more than 7,500 students during that time.

“We want our schools to be able to provide a full education and that includes fine arts, athletics and electives, but we’re still in a position of having most of the focus on facilities and buses and the things you just can’t do without,” Hanna said. “I do think what the people just passed goes a long way to getting caught up on facilities.”

Class size

State law allows no more than 22 students in kindergarten through fourth grade classes, so even the overcrowded schools are required to maintain this class size. The state has no restrictions on the number of students in fifth- through twelfth-grade classrooms.

Each summer, the Texas Education Agency issues preliminary numbers on every school’s student-to-teacher ratio. RRISD Communications Director JoyLynn Occhiuzzi said the student-to-teacher ratio reported by the TEA is not necessarily reflective of actual class size.

“The way we do the reporting doesn’t take into account your special education teachers,” Occhiuzzi said. “They don’t have a class full of 22. That number doesn’t take into account your music teachers, your P.E. [physical education] teachers. It lumps them all in together and they count as a teacher.”

Managing growth

Superintendent Dr. Jesús Chávez said the district strives to keep schools below 125 percent capacity and manages growth beyond 100 percent with portable buildings, changing school boundaries or eventually proposing a bond to pay for a new school. A facility’s capacity is the number of students the building was designed for, and schools at more than 100 percent capacity typically have classrooms in portable buildings.

“We don’t build for the maximum,” Chávez said. “We use portables as a way of accommodating that additional 10, 15, 20 percent. But once we get over the 25, 30, 35 percent, then we’ve got to find a solution for the overcrowding.”

Chávez said the main reason school districts do not build school facilities to handle the maximum number of students they anticipate is because the number of children living within a school boundary typically ebbs and flows over time as children grow up.

“Long term, generally what happens to a neighborhood is that it matures,” Chávez said. “They move to middle school, high school, and unless you’re getting new families moving in and buying the homes that the more mature adults are selling, then you get a decline in enrollment.”

Chávez said at one point, Purple Sage and Anderson Mill elementary schools had as many as 10 portables on each of their campuses, but the areas are now more mature and neither school has portables today.

Crowded schools

Cactus Ranch Elementary is the most crowded school in the district, at 153 percent capacity with more than 1,250 students attending a school built for 952. The school opened eight years ago and has been at more than 125 percent capacity for four years.

Principal Vicki Crain said some of the challenges with an overcrowded school include scheduling and space for both indoor and outdoor activities, such as lunch, recess and physical education.

“Kids are going to lunch at 10 a.m.,” Crain said. “Kids are crowded in wellness class because even though we’re staffed appropriately, the gym is not big enough to hold a large number of kids. Our outdoor space is not what it was because now we have 10 portables on the playground. We have one library, so it’s limited when you’re having to share it with 1,250 kids.”

Crain’s biggest issue is facility space, which she said limits students’ involvement in extracurricular activities. Although the school is crowded, Crain said she is proud of making it work.

“We have been rated exemplary seven out of eight years,” she said. “And we just have a system for everything — for where the buses go, which door you go in and how you walk in the hallway. But most importantly, we hire good teachers. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if our school is big or small. If you have a good teacher, you’re going to be okay.”

School bond approved

RRISD will sell the $293.9 million bond in multiple phases to keep the tax rate stable at 34 cents per $100 valuation, as was promised to taxpayers leading up to the election. In a Nov. 20 meeting, the RRISD Board of Trustees approved an issuance of up to $138.8 million in bonds for a new elementary school in the Stone Oak neighborhood area to address the crowding at Cactus Ranch Elementary, and for phase two of the master plans to expand Round Rock High School and renovate Westwood High School.

“The most immediate need is relieving Cactus Ranch,” Chávez said. “It’s going to take 18 months to build that relief school. That certainly needs to be our first project.”

The bond committee provided the school board with a prioritized list of projects to be addressed by the 2008 bond. RRISD Board of Trustees President Diane Cox said the timing and amount of the next bond sale will depend on several things.

“It’s really based on need,” Cox said. “We look at how we’re doing with the projects we’ve already sold bonds for and how we’re progressing with that. And then certainly we look at how the market is, and we watch the tax rate because we have made a commitment to our voters not to go over the 34 cents on the debt side.”

Planning ahead

RRISD is trying to get back on a three-year cycle with school bonds, so Cox said the next bond election is expected in 2011.

“What we have been doing is, about six months prior to going out for a bond, we’ve been trying to get citizens committees together to work on them,” Cox said. “So, if everything stays the way it is and our growth stays the way it is, then I’d say that we’d probably be back out in three years.”

Will Hampton, City of Round Rock communications director, said the community’s full build out is expected to be between 250,000 and 300,000 citizens. With that, Cox said the district is planning for 60,000 to 80,000 students in RRISD.

“We’re always trying to be as much as two steps ahead as we possibly can in the projections,” Cox said. “But there is some catch up here that we have to do as well.”

Overcrowded schools in Round Rock ISD

*RRISD considers a school to be full at 85 percent of the facility’s capacity. ** As of Oct. 1, 2008 • Source: Round Rock ISD

Cactus Ranch Elementary, 2901 Goldenoak Circle, www.roundrockisd.org/cactusranch

• 2008 Accountability Rating: Exemplary
• Current enrollment**: 1,243
• Facility capacity: 952
• Percent over full*: 153%

Hopewell Middle School, 1535 Gulf Way, www.roundrockisd.org/hopewell

• 2008 Accountability Rating: Academically Acceptable
• Current enrollment**: 1,371
• Facility capacity: 1,324
• Percent over full*: 122%

Great Oaks Elementary, 16455 Great Oaks Drive, www.roundrockisd/greatoaks

• 2008 Accountability Rating: Exemplary
• Current enrollment**: 973
• Facility capacity: 886
• Percent over full*: 129%

Voters approved a $293.9 million Round Rock ISD school bond in the November election. At a Nov. 20 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the first issuance of these bonds up to $138.8 million for a new elementary school in the Stone Oak neighborhood area to address the crowding at Cactus Ranch Elementary, and for phase two of the master plans to expand Round Rock High School and renovate Westwood High School.

2008 Round Rock ISD bond

Voters approved the following two propositions in November:

Proposition One

• Cost: $156.6 million
• Addresses issues arising from district growth, including:
  • Three new elementary schools in the Stone Oak, Paloma Lake and Parmer corridor areas
  • Purchase of 15 new school buses
  • Purchase of five additional land sites for a future high school, an alternative high school, a middle school and two elementary school sites
  • Technology to refresh, replace, upgrade and support existing computers, upgrade network infrastructure and replace existing central computer systems
  • A transportation facility on the west side of the district, allowing the current facility on the McNeil High School campus to be repurposed

Proposition Two

• Cost: $137.4 million
• Funds renovations, improvements and additions to existing facilities, including:
  • Phase two of master plan additions and renovations at Round Rock High School and Westwood High School
  • Safety and security improvements to entrances at secondary and selected elementary schools
  • Science room additions at Chisholm Trail Middle School
  • Fine arts addition at Deerpark Middle School
  • Removal of remaining carpeted elementary school gym floors and gym additions at Ridgeview and Cedar Valley middle schools
  • Weight room additions at Stony Point High School, McNeil High School and Cedar Valley Middle School
  • District-wide infrastructure projects including plumbing, electrical, air conditioning/heating, roofing, flooring and fire alarm systems
  • Purchase of 15 new school buses
  • Purchase of digital data projectors for all classrooms that do not yet have them

Round Rock ISD’s approach to managing growth

When the number of students at a school grows beyond 100 percent of the facility’s capacity, the district considers the following options:

Step 1: Add portables

RRISD can manage a capacity of 100 to 124 percent by adding portable buildings to a school campus.

Step 2: Change school boundary

If nearby schools are below 124 percent capacity, sometimes changing boundaries can relieve an overcrowded school.

Step 3: Build a new school

Once steps 1 and 2 are considered, the district and the school board typically consider a bond election to secure money to build a new school.

Five full high schools

Cedar Ridge High School

When Cedar Ridge High School opens at 2901 Gattis School Road in the fall of 2010, all five high schools in RRISD are anticipated to be at about 100 percent capacity.

Superintendent Jesús Chávez said Cedar Ridge will relieve Stony Point High School.

The Stony Point 9th Grade Center, adjacent to Stony Point High School, will convert back to a middle school in the fall of 2010 and significantly relieve crowding at Hopewell Middle School. Ninth grade students will attend Stony Point High School, maintaining the school’s current capacity of about 100 percent.