Midway ISD’s popularity could push its elementary enrollment past its current capacity in less than 10 years.
That’s why district officials are considering a November bond election that would fund new facilities — including a new Speegleville Elementary School building — while also addressing rising maintenance costs across the district.
By fall 2028, Midway ISD projects that it will be at 90% functional capacity at elementary schools. If the district continues at the rate it is growing, elementary schools will be over capacity by fall 2033. More developments, a lower tax rate and housing affordability are driving the growth.
“Midway ISD as a whole, it’s a sought after place to be. When people have the choice, they choose us, for their kids and for their families and for the community and for the schools that are here,” said Emily Parks, Midway ISD’s director of communications.
The district faces an Aug. 18 deadline to call a November election, which would address a bond proposal totaling $175.3 million. If approved, officials say, the bond would not increase the tax rate.
Midway ISD has grown 6.5% from 2018 to 2023 and continues to see steady growth. There are 22 active subdivisions being built throughout the district, including near Park Hill, Chapel Park and Hewitt elementary schools.
As the district grows, so do the needs of campuses. Students at Midway High school need a new gym for their athletics program. Midway High, a 6A school, had not had a new gym since it opened in 2003. The school has two gyms, while the middle schools have three gyms.
“That high school gym is not only used for athletics. It’s used for kids that are taking PE but it’s used also for things that are like AP testing,” said Jordan Berry, the chair of a Midway ISD facility studies committee that made recommendations for the bond proposal.
The committee also recommended additions to Spring Valley Elementary School to increase capacity to 750 kids from 500. At South Bosque Elementary School, students are using portables due to lack of space. The committee’s recommendations eliminate the portables.
The committee, which was formed this year, looked at several schools, projected growth and estimated costs to come to its recommendations for the bond proposal.
At Midway ISD’s June Board of Trustees meeting, the committee also recommended building a new Speegleville Elementary School, upgrading locker rooms in high schools and improving facilities throughout the district.
“Every campus would be touched,” Berry said.
Built in 1954, the current Speegleville Elementary has limited capacity. It depends on a well and septic tank for water and sewer needs, forcing a limit of 250 students in the building. Overall costs to run the old school are higher than other district campuses.
“If you were to take the cost of a campus and break it up by per-student cost, all of our other schools run in the range of $5,000 to $7,000 per student to run. That campus runs over $9,000 per student. And it’s inefficient,” Parks said.
After hearing the committee’s recommendations in June, the board held a special session last week before its regular board meeting. Trustees expressed doubts on whether it made sense to build a new Speegleville school, considering the costs. The district would save $600,000 if they closed the school. Midway ISD last opened a new school in 2022.
The new Speegleville school would be built farther south of the original campus. Students would have to be bused to the new school. The new location would add five to 10 minutes to the commute and add more transportation costs.
The committee said its recommendations successfully met three goals: to address growth, to repair aging facilities and to reduce maintenance and operations costs.
“We felt that was important for our community members, but also for the district as well, to not take on too much debt as well, to then have to try to increase the tax rate. We looked at nearly $300 million of work. We whittled it down to $175 million,” Barry said.
The board will meet on Aug. 12, six days before the deadline to call for a November bond election.
“The board has the right to take our recommendation and go with what we recommended,” Barry said. They have a right to add to it. They have a right to modify it, or say, ‘no, we don’t like it,’ and that’s what they’re mulling over right now.”
