48,852 students expected by 2026

By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News

Dan Troxell, superintendent of Leander ISD, gave his annual LISD State of the District presentation on Wednesday highlighting growth, the bond project update and student successes. This week’s report focuses on growth.

“Growth is a good thing for school districts. First of all it means people are choosing to come to our communities and that they value the quality of education,” Troxell told the 240 attendees on March 21 at Hill Country Bible Church. “And secondly, it’s great to see new kids come in and the things we can do with them and the programs we can offer as we continue to expand and grow.”

Before he dove into the numbers, Troxell thanked the LISD Board of Trustees. “The state of the district is strong because of the seven individuals who give hours and hours of their time without any compensation,” he said.

Trish Bode, Steiner Ranch resident, parent and LISD board member, was at the meeting and said the district is doing what it has set out to do.

“(LISD’s) vision to engage and inspire and achieve, we are seeing all of what we’re setting out to do,” Bode said. “I love how much our district pours into our students and our students are thriving, they are engaged and thriving.”

Demographics  

There are 39,010 total students in LISD and the district is the 10th fastest growing district in the state of more than 1,000 school districts.

“That’s raw number of kids coming in,” Troxell said.

Over the past decade, LISD has averaged 983 new students annually but this school year there were 1,068 new students.

“The growth has been there and it’s going to continue to be there in the future,” Troxell said.

There are 42 schools in LISD and 65 languages spoken among students. The LISD class of 2017 had 2,590 graduates.

LISD adds 138 new jobs a year because of growth, and has over 5,000 employees including 2,801 teachers, or 56 percent, which is above average. Some 5 percent of staff is administration.

Demographers have been accurate with their projections over the past decade or so, Troxell said.

“Ten years ago we were sitting at 24,000 students. Right now it’s a little over 39,000. In the next few years we’re going to grow in just under 49,000,” Troxell said.

LISD growth is expected to hit 48,852 students by 2026-2027.

He pointed out Round Rock ISD is at 49,000 students now. They are the second largest school district in the area after Austin ISD. But he points out that in Round Rock “there is just not a lot of area for new growth, not a lot of area to build new homes,” Troxell said.

Partly as a result of RRISD housing nearly being built out, more growth will continue to happen in LISD.

“It’s not just the schools that attract people to the community, it’s the housing developments, it’s the jobs, the infrastructures, ” Troxell said.

Troxell likened the district shape as that of an “overweight Italy”.

LISD expects to build nine new schools including six elementary, two middle and one high school.

Nearly 90 percent of the growth in student population is expected to come from new homes, which are concentrated mostly in the northern part of the district. Vandegrift and Four Points is located in the southern end of the district and shows some growth in homes.

Also there is some growth in Cedar Park but it is limited compared to the rest of the district.

“One of the things the demographer talked about, that I think is fascinating, is that they’re not seeing a regeneration of homes. In other words, once people’s children graduate from high school, they don’t leave Cedar Park, they stay here,” Troxell said.

Some of the reasons for that include the “great hospitals, you have great medical care, high quality of life, low crime, great city government. You have a lot of things in Cedar Park that keep people here,” he said.

Another point Troxell makes is that most of the growth in new students comes from families with older students, from 4th graders through 12 graders. The reason for that is the cost of housing. In general, new developments draw older students in the larger, higher priced homes.

“It takes a while for families to have the income for them to afford to move into our community. So we do see older students coming in in greater numbers than our primary students,” Troxell said.

This is part I of a several-part series.