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Boerne ISD updates strategic facilities plan; focus group recommends CTE-focused destination and land acquisitions
Summary
At a May 20 Boerne ISD Board of Trustees meeting, district staff and consultants summarized findings from two community and staff focus groups and the district demographer, recommending a CTE-focused destination facility and targeted land acquisitions while noting capacity and traffic constraints at Boerne Middle School North and stadium sites.
Boerne ISD trustees on May 20 received an update on the district's Strategic Facilities Planning Focus Group and related work on Bond 2022, including a recommendation to explore a career and technical education (CTE) destination facility and to expand the district's land holdings in growth areas.
The presentation consolidated months of work by two focus groups, district staff, architects and the demographer, and laid out five recommendations: reconsider the purpose of Boerne Middle School North, set a preferred middle-school capacity at 1,200 students, expand the district's land portfolio, convene a long-range planning committee, and maximize existing campus capacity to postpone a third high school.
Why it matters: trustees and staff said the recommendation aims to match instructional priorities with physical space, manage projected growth more deliberately, and avoid building an expensive third high school before program-driven demand justifies it.
Romero Guerrero, who introduced the item, framed the focus groups as information-gathering with no action requested, and invited Pfluger Architects and district instructional leaders to summarize findings. Robin Popa, managing principal at Pfluger Architects, said the two community groups and a separate staff-focused programming group identified recurring site constraints at Boerne Middle School North and at the district stadium. "Boerne Middle School North and the location of the Boerne ISD stadium . . . are challenged with a couple of existing site constraints," Popa said, citing limited acreage, adjacent creek and surrounding residences and church that limit expansion. She added the stadium's shared site with Boerne High School strains parking and ingress/egress on game days.
The staff-led facilities programming group emphasized instruction-driven construction and recommended developing a program first if the district pursues a CTE destination campus. That group visited 17 facilities around Texas to evaluate models for CTE centers and found wide variation in design, student admission models and community integration. "The recommendation or 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.
Dr. O'Hara, the district demographer, presented enrollment projections and building capacities using PASA's reduced (low) model. The district's October 2024 snapshot enrollment was 11,141 students; district staff reported a slowing growth rate, budgeting for a 1.2% increase under PASA's low model. Elementary capacity modeling showed most elementary campuses hold about 800 students; Fabra (FABRA) was the first elementary projected to exceed capacity under the reduced model in 2028'29. For middle schools, two campuses already meet a 1,200 recommended capacity while Boerne Middle School North has a smaller footprint and reaches capacity earlier. High school capacity was modeled with recent additions: Boerne High School (1,900) and Champion High School (2,600), with Champion projected to reach capacity earlier than Boerne under the current projections.
District staff outlined next steps should the board direct further work: instruction-led program development (student interest surveys and workforce analysis), a facility assessment driven by program needs, cost and timeline analyses, and a final report that would inform bond planning or other capital strategies. Trustees and participants discussed shuttle logistics, the value of downtown proximity for a CTE site, and the potential to leverage partnerships with the chamber and local businesses for program design and industry alignment.
No formal board action was taken on the facility recommendations at the meeting; staff described the presentation as informational and described further community engagement and planning to occur this year.
Community context and details: focus group members identified the western side of I-10 and several large planned developments (e.g., Shoreline Park, Bluff View, Corley Farms, Planning Unit 66/Esperanza, Planning Unit 74/George's Ranch) as growth areas the district should monitor for land acquisition. Bond 2022 work (Viola Wilson Elementary, high school additions, legacy library renovations, Mitchell Learning Center conversion and campus safety upgrades) was cited as largely complete despite pandemic-era material and labor pressures; project teams reported some savings and continued city coordination on traffic and drainage projects affecting campuses.
The presentation concluded with a call for a long-range steering committee and further industry engagement so instructional programming can drive any future construction decisions.
