By Laura Alanis-Lopez

Pflag Correspondent

During the Superintendent’s Report on Thursday, Dec. 17, leaders with the Pflugerville district officially announced that the construction and opening of High School Four is being delayed.

“When we began planning for our fourth high school, there were two driving forces,” said Pflugerville Superintendent of Schools Charles Dupre. “Demographic projections that told us our current high school facilities would be severely stressed by the 2012-2013 school year and our belief that we must offer more opportunities for students, whether they plan to attend college or enter the workforce right out of high school.”

Citing a demographic report that predicts steady but slower than expected growth, district officials highlighted the current realities facing the district, but emphasized that the timeline extension would not mean stopping the project altogether.

“Our report shows that from the 2008-2009 to 2009-2010 school years Pflugerville saw a zero percent growth [at the high school level] and is only expected to grow an additional three percent [about 214 students] for the 2010-2011 school year,” said Mark Kincaid, Executive Director of College and Career Readiness for the Pflugerville district.

With the majority of the growth expected to affect Hendrickson High School, Pflugerville ISD officials feel all of the high schools have some room to accommodate more students. That therefore, officials say, can delay the building of this College/Career format high school that was originally set to open up in the 2012 or 2013 school year.

Still expected to house about 1,500 students and offer career academies and alternative learning opportunities, the proposed campus size is still unknown, as is the exact cost of the building and how long the delay will be.

In fact, officials say other cost saving options, like redrawing boundary lines may be discussed and reviewed as a way to handle the growth in the district.

“We have not discussed at length any plans to [redraw] boundary lines, [but] I mentioned it to the Board as a possible way to reduce overcrowding at high schools without building a new building,” said Dupre. “It is possible that it would be more cost effective to redraw boundary lines that help to balance our high school population than to take on the construction and operating costs of a fourth high school in the near future.”

Despite the uncertain economy and its impact on the Pflugerville district over the coming years, all officials want the public to know that nothing will be done without a lot of research and discussion, in order to reach the best decision for the children.

“Our main goal is that all high schools will truly prepare students for future college and career opportunities. We can do that with three high schools or four high schools. Although we may be delaying the opening of a fourth high school, we will continue our efforts to expand programs at our existing high schools so that every high school in PISD is an educational environment in which students want to learn and prepare for the future,” said Kincaid.

In addition to the development of the new timeline, district officials say the next steps include refinement of programs to be included at the new high school and to analyze the demographics and 10-year projections, due out next month. A detailed demographic report and update on the planning of High School Four is expected to be provided to the board during the February meeting.