A third Boerne high school campus won’t be necessary for another decade, according to figures shared during the Boerne Independent School District’s board of trustees meeting Monday.
However, a report from members of two facilities planning committees hinted at consideration of the redesign or reuse of the Boerne Middle School North campus as a Career and Technical Education (CTE) center.
Ramiro Guerrero, Boerne ISD executive director of facilities, and Robyn Popa, a representative of the district’s Strategic Facilities Planning Focus Group, shared information gathered by that focus group from November 2023 to April 2024, and data from a second, similar-focused group, the Future Planning Focus Group, which met beginning in October 2024 and concluded last month.
Slides detailing attendance projections for all elementary, middle and high schools showed Boerne and Champion high schools capable of carrying capacity well into the 20332034 school year before another structure may be needed.
Popa reviewed findings from both committees, among them being “maximize existing facilities strategically to postpone the need for high school no. 3,” “establish a student capacity for middle schools at 1,200 students” and “consider building a new Boerne Middle School North and leverage the current BMS-N facility as an advanced career/CTE center.”
Gurrero presented a slide showing BMS-N exists on 10.4 acres of land; recommended size for a middle school, he said, was 30-40 acres. Boerne Middle School-South exists on 56.4 acres, shared with Kendall Elementary School.
“The overall feeling from the group was that a CTE-focused facility is something they felt had the most benefit to the district,” Popa said. “We really want instruction to be able to drive construction.
“You have to develop the programs,” she added. “What that means is taking student interest surveys, also studying workforce projections and what the local economy is needing, in order to support it.”
She said once the district has an understanding of what the actual programs would be, “a facility assessment should be done at the campus, assessing not just the overall building, but the site as well.”
While none of the findings of the focus groups is binding or were being put to a vote Monday, the findings peaked the interest of board members, who peppered the pair with questions about attendance, programming, business relationships, facilities and instruction needs.
Popa said the Future Planning Focus Group visited 17 campuses across the state “and we looked at facilities that were being particularly innovative in the programming that they were offering.
“What (we saw) ... was an overwhelming emphasis on CTE in a lot of these programs,” she said. “A lot of these programs had a blending of multiple types of programs, so they weren’t all just solely specialized on early college, or vocational, there was a blending of these.”
Dr. Kristin Craft, Boerne superintendent, said the primary factor she hears from constituents is the district’s ability to deal with growth.
“One of the biggest concerns from parents is with growth. They know it’s coming, so let’s be responsible with growth,” she said.
Dr. John O’Hare, Boerne ISD chief administrative officer, reviewed demographics and projections for the board. He said that while the district’s current high school arrangement will not reach capacity until 2033-2034, “we could better utilize the capacity at our middle schools by ... leveraging some of the available space at Voss Middle School.
“The need for a third high school is quite a ways out,” O’Hare said. “And if we would entertain something like a high school CTE center for Boerne Middle School North, that would also push this out even further, because we would see students coming off the high school campuses” to the CTE campus.
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