The committee formulated the successful 2023 bond election which resulted in the construction of Lynn McKinney Elementary School, renovations to Aledo High School, the Steve Wood Athletic Complex, and other projects — including land purchases for future campuses.
However, committee co-chair Dan Reilley stressed that Monday’s meeting was not to talk about bonds.
“We’re just talking about the future of this district,” Reilley said. He pointed out that the AISD is now the largest school district ion Parker County in terms of enrolled students — and that number is climbing.
Land-wise, Aledo ISD is 130 square miles, the equivalent of the combined area of Allen, Birdville, Carroll, and HEB ISDs. There is technically enough land area in Aledo ISD for seven high schools, although Reilley’s co-chair Kelli Stumbo quickly pointed out that “we’re not saying we’re going to seven.”
Based on demographic projections a couple of years ago, it appeared that the need for a second high school would be right on the doorstep by now.
However, mirroring a state-wide trend, growth has slowed, and the number of new students is less that projected, Aledo’s actual growth has been less than the lowest-growth projection by demographers.
Reilley said the original plan was to have a bond election in 2025 to build a second high school or a college and career academy.. However, that has been pushed back two years based on the new data.
“The data keeps changing on us — it’s like hitting a moving target,” Reilley said. “Every year the data is changing, so we have to modify our plan, so we will get an updated plan on this. But it doesn’t change the fact that we are moving towards a college and career academy and or a second high school.”
Stumbo told the group that the district is looking at all sorts of factors to determine what student population will look like in the future.
“Everything from who’s moving to the district? What age are they? What is the birth rate? We dove into all of it,” Stumbo said, and the conclusion was that slower growth will continue.
“We are below what is projected,” Stumbo said. “Before anybody panics, this is being seen across every public school district in Texas right now. And so we are still seeing growth. Do not hear differently. However, the projected growth coming out of what we thought we were seeing or going to continue to see in 22 through 25 is very different.”
Aledo ISD Superintendent Dr. Susan Bohn took the stage to explain the concept of a college and career academy.
“This is not a super-unique model. It is replicated across DFW, but it’s unique for us. So we wanted to talk about it,” Bohn said.
She explained that a college and career academy is a specialized high school campus.
“It would have specialty career and technology education labs and workspaces that would be located at the CCA. So if the CCA were built, those labs and workspaces would not be replicated at a high school, because a student would come to the CCA for that work,” Bohn said. “So students would remain enrolled at and attend Aledo High School/DNG or a second high school or third High School, potentially, and attend the college and career academy for college and college credit courses we have”
The CCA would not have traditional high school amenities — no cafeteria, no athletic fields, no library — an high school students (typically upper grade levels) would attend it as a part of their school day.
“For state purposes, we would have one high school,” Bohn said. “So essentially, what it would do is create more capacity for the students that we already have without building an additional high school that would be counted as a second high school.”
Reilley said the district has land where a potential CCE could be built. The district recently purchased 20 acres of land adjacent to the Daniel campus. Students could potentially walk from AHS/DNG to the CCA.
The district also has 100 acres just north of McAnally Middle School where a second high school could be built.
Stumbo said the need for a facility now looks like 2032 to 2035.
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