Highland Park Independent School District is making a sizable bet on its future.
Construction is moving forward on a new elementary campus designed not simply to accommodate the students Highland Park ISD has today, but to prepare for families the district hopes will arrive as the Buffalo Highlands development takes shape.
It is an ambitious approach for a relatively small school district, and one that could look increasingly important if the expected housing growth delivers new students over the next several years.
The new campus is scheduled to open in August 2027. Superintendent Jimmy Hannon said the elementary portion is nearing the dried-in stage, with the concrete slab poured and crews preparing to begin hanging drywall.
The facility will include an early learning academy offering child care for infants through 4-year-olds. Its elementary classrooms will serve pre-K through second grade, with room for roughly 400 students.
That is considerable capacity for a district that currently has about 715 students in all grades.
Highland Park ISD does not expect those classrooms to fill immediately. Instead, the district is building with future growth in mind, particularly the approximately 1,100 single-family homes expected to eventually make up Buffalo Highlands.
The reasoning is understandable.
Hannon said Highland Park ISD's enrollment has fallen since the COVID-19 pandemic. The district currently has about 715 students, compared with a high of roughly 925 during his decade with the district.
“That was our motivation coming out of the pandemic is how can we help our enrollment and sustain our small school district for many years into the future,” Hannon said.
Housing is an important part of that equation.
A school district can offer strong programs and attractive facilities, but families need somewhere to live. Highland Park ISD's existing campus has relatively little housing surrounding it. Buffalo Highlands could change that by putting a substantial number of new homes inside the district while also bringing the district physically closer to Amarillo.
There is, of course, no guarantee that new houses will translate directly into hundreds of additional students. Developments take time to build, housing markets change and the number of school-age children moving into a neighborhood can be difficult to predict.
That makes Highland Park ISD's strategy a long-term investment rather than an immediate solution to declining enrollment.
It is also an expensive one.
Voters approved a $130 million bond in 2023, with all but $1 million designated for the new school, infrastructure and deferred maintenance at existing district facilities. Hannon said approximately $85 million in guaranteed maximum price projects has been approved so far.
Those numbers make it reasonable for taxpayers to continue watching the project's costs, construction progress and eventual impact on enrollment. Building for future growth can be prudent, but the value of that investment ultimately will depend on how closely the district's growth projections match reality.
The district is also constructing a Career and Technology Education Center known as “The Cube.” The center is intended to give high school students opportunities to develop workforce skills before graduation, and Highland Park ISD is considering partnerships that could allow neighboring districts to participate in some programs.
That part of the project could have value beyond enrollment numbers. Career and technical education has the potential to give students practical options after high school while allowing districts to share programs that might otherwise be difficult for smaller systems to provide independently.
For now, Highland Park ISD is building ahead of the population it expects rather than reacting after classrooms become crowded.
That carries risk, but waiting until hundreds of new homes are occupied before preparing schools would carry its own risks.
The real test will come over the next several years as Buffalo Highlands develops. If new homes bring families and students into Highland Park ISD as anticipated, the district could find itself well positioned for a new period of growth.
If that growth comes more slowly, district leaders will have to demonstrate how the new facilities can still provide enough educational and community value to justify the investment.
