Arlington ISD has been working its way through a nearly $1 billion bond with a series of building projects despite a slow start due to the pandemic and inflation.
Just recently the district broke ground on its fourth new school site — a $62.7 million venture that will see the doors of the brand-new Carter Junior High School open up to students by 2025.
District voters approved the $966 million bond package in November 2019, with taxpayer dollars going toward building four new schools, new school buses, upgraded security features, and iPads or Chromebooks for student use. Another large sum went toward boosting the fine arts with new theater equipment, musical instruments, and uniforms for those in band, drill, and choir.
In all, Arlington ISD officials are aiming to have more than 90 projects completed by the end of 2025.
“We did slow things down just a bit,” explained Kelly Horn, Arlington ISD’s assistant superintendent of facility services, according to the Fort Worth Report. “We’ve just seen so much inflation. … We had to take some time to realign our projects to our budgets.”
Alongside Carter Junior High, Thornton Elementary, Berry Elementary, and Webb Elementary were slated for rebuilds due to their facilities dating back to the 1950s being “old, worn out, and too costly to maintain,” as the district explained ahead of the 2019 bond vote.
“Back in 1958, Carter was modern at the time,” explained Steven Wurtz, Arlington ISD’s interim superintendent. “But there have been many, many advances since then, and the landscape of education has completely changed.”
The elementary schools have already been built and equipped with modern security features, but it was a painstakingly long endeavor due to supply chain issues and the requirement to keep the City of Arlington in the loop.
“That’s why everything is further back a little bit,” Horn said. “But, this means the city and the community have a lot of input into these projects, which of course we want.”
Several North Texas ISDs are seeking bond packages this fall to erect new school campuses due to aging infrastructure and growing enrollment numbers.
For instance, as covered in The Dallas Express, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD has submitted a $1 billion November bond package that would address urgent infrastructure needs of campuses, including L.D. Bell High School, where the volleyball team currently practices on the tennis court, and Trinity High School, which has cracked pipes and foundation problems.
Similarly, Prosper ISD has approved a $2.8 billion bond package for a vote in November to expand school facilities. The district has seen a surge in numbers, which currently stand at over 28,000 students. Superintendent Holly Ferguson reported that this number is expected to hit 50,000.
Enrollment projections over the next 10 years at Arlington ISD suggest a slight uptick in student numbers. Nonetheless, several of its facilities are already or are expected to be operating at over-capacity.
While some districts have had to grapple with surges in student enrollment, Dallas ISD has been losing students for years.
A large contributor to this has been Dallas ISD’s poor student achievement outcomes. STAAR exams for the 2021-2022 school year showed that 41% of its students scored at grade level, significantly below the 48% statewide average. The scores released for the 2022-2023 school year did not show much improvement, as covered in The Dallas Express.