Liberty Hill ISD forecasting 19,000 students by 2034
LIBERTY HILL, Texas (KXAN) — More and more people are moving to Williamson County and because of that places like Liberty Hill are seeing immense growth.
“When I moved out here 5 years ago it was very calm, very country,” said Natalie Menteer, who lives in Liberty Hill. “Apartments going up, homes going up, a lot of businesses.”
Her kids go to school in Liberty Hill ISD, which is also seeing the impacts from growth.
“We seem to be averaging 12 to 15% growth each year, roughly 900 to 1000 students consistently over the last few years,” said LHISD Interim Superintendent, Travis Motal.
Currently there are 9,991 students in the district, but according to a recent demographic report— in 10 years the district is forecasting more than 19,000 students.
Some schools are nearing capacity, while some are forecasted to be over capacity.
“Santa Rita Middle School is projected to be at around 1,450 students next year with a capacity of 1200 so as you can see its about 250 students over capacity,” said Motal.
Motal says staying ahead of the growth and adapting to it is all part of the process, so to deal with Santa Rita Middle School being over capacity they will add portables.
“We have elected to put some portables over there for this next year to help with that growth temporarily, knowing that the following year, August of 26, we are going to be opening up middle school number 3, redrawing the middle school attendance boundary lines then everyone is going to be well within their capacity for the next several years,” said Motal.
Liberty Hill ISD told KXAN it plans on adding three portables each with two classrooms in them at Santa Rita Middle School.
