BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Sprawling across southeastern Bexar County, from Victor Braunig Lake up to Interstate 10 and Loop 1604, East Central ISD has plenty of open space — though it’s quickly being filled in.
“It used to be all just farmland out here. Now there’s a lot of houses — lot of it,” St. Hedwig resident Kim Rollins said.
The new subdivisions popping up have already helped East Central ISD’s enrollment rise by about 2,100 students in the past decade to the 11,920 projected for the current year.
But it’s nothing compared to the growth the district is bracing for over the next nine years. It expects to more than double its enrollment numbers to 25,617 students by the 2033-2034 school year.
Facing that explosive growth, the district is asking voters to green light a second high school for $198.9 million and two new elementary schools, costing $50.6 million and $49.7 million.
Proposition B’s total $331.1 million bond package is one of four ECISD propositions on district voters’ ballots. The proposition also includes money for renovations and additions for the East Central High School agriculture facility, a new gym at the high school, and $4 million for additional land to buy land for future campuses.
The request comes just two years after voters already approved a $240 million bond package that included the construction of a new middle school and two new elementary schools.
East Central ISD spokesman Brandon Oliver told KSAT the district had expected it would need to come back to the ballot box, even after the 2022 bond election.
“We heard our community,” he said. “I mean, they wanted a new high school, but according to demographers, we would hit 120% occupancy of elementaries first. So that was the first necessity was to approach that and also give us a third middle school to reduce that congestion.”
As for whether the buildings in the 2024 bond will be enough to accommodate the more than 25,600 students projected nine years out, Oliver said, “It’s supposed to take care of the expected growth. But, you know, as we continue, we might, after reviewing the facilities, need additional space.”
ECISD’s planning is based on work done by a College Station-based demographer, Population and Survey Analysts (PASA).
In a spring 2024 study for the district, PASA projected there would be nearly 44,600 additional housing occupancies in October 2033 compared to last fall.
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The district has four bond propositions on the ballot.
Props C and D are also bond packages but for athletic facilities. Prop C would be for a $10 million renovation of East Central High School’s Hornet Stadium, while the $18.9 million Prop D would provide upgrades to the baseball and softball facilities as well as renovating the tennis building and building new courts.
Proposition A, though, would ratify the new, higher tax rate the school board already set for the budget year. The money would help pay higher teacher salaries, pay for additional police officers, and cover additional security measures.
The $6.6 million change in the district’s annual budget from Prop A includes $2.8 million the district expects to receive from the state.
Altogether, the district says the four propositions would cost the average ECISD homeowner $378 per year in additional property taxes.