Back on track: Area school districts
Courtesy photo
Academy High School student Alyssa Polnac poses for a photo with Rep. John Carter. Her piece titled “Impact” took first place in the paintings category of the 2021 Congressional Art Competition.
Area school districts building for future Academy, Rogers, Troy projects underway or in planning stages BY JOEL VALLEY TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
In Bell County, the Academy Independent School District is leading a pack of smaller local districts in growth, and is aiming to open a new high school campus in 2023 — a facility that will be funded by the $79 million bond issue voters approved in the May 1 election. Academy ISD Superintendent Billy Harlan called the upcoming project, which is being designed by Claycomb Associates, monumental. “We are so thankful to the Academy ISD school community for the support for the construction project … 68% approval is phenomenal,” he wrote
in his monthly newsletter. “The processes are already underway as surveyors, geotech engineers and architects begin to work on concepts for us to consider.” Templeton Demographics has Academy ISD — a school district with about 1,750 students — pegged to reach nearly 2,300 students for the 2024-25 school year as homebuilding in the city of Temple that is part of that district extends south. This projection report was completed for the district in the fall of 2019. “There’s a tremendous amount of property being purchased and annexed into our district ... that developers plan to build quite a few homes on,” Harlan said. “On the far northwest side of our district, there’s already a planned develop-
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ment that’s underway. The streets have already been cut in and we’re expecting to see some new homes this summer and fall. That’s what we’re trying to plan for.” But the Academy ISD superintendent said the new high school, which will be built on the 80acre property just north of its existing high school site that Academy ISD purchased last year, will accomplish just that. “We’re going to spend about $45 million in phase one and that will get our students into the high school,” Harlan told the Telegram following a recent meeting with architects. “So you may not see all of the classrooms completed when it first opens … but as our growth starts happening, we will be able to work into
phase two and phase three.” Although Academy ISD expects the project to reach $60 million, Harlan said the benefits of a new high school will not be limited to its campus grounds. “Building a new high school relieves the pressure at the campuses below,” he said. “As a district we can decide, based on enrollment, how many middle school students will go into the existing high school … and that just works its way down to the elementary school level.” Rogers ISD Meanwhile in Rogers ISD, voters approved only Proposition A in the district’s $6.1 million fourpart bond issue during the May 1 election. June 27, 2021
