Temple ISD’s new school accommodates for continued growth, district says more projects are in the works

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) - Temple ISD students started the year Tuesday at the district’s first new school since 1998, accommodating for increased enrollment in the district.

Sampson-Howard Elementary School opened Tuesday to students in southeast Temple, an area flourishing with new developments.

Superintendent Dr. Bobby Ott said Temple ISD planned the new elementary school to be embedded in the heart of the housing developments on the rise nearly five years ago.

“We started doing demographic studies around 2018 and that revealed that we had developers that had purchased property all in that area,” he said.

The district began meeting with developers and found that they needed to get ready to build a new school that would house students from the new families moving into the area.

“It’s worked out just right,” Ott said. “We have a brand new school, the right amount of spaces, and we also have a subdivision right next to it nearing completion and another one that’s actually starting.”

In addition to accommodating for growth, Sampson is a neighborhood school, and it is the first fine arts elementary in Bell County, according to Ott.

Ott said the school has a black box stage and an outdoor performing space for students to study theatre. It offers also offers strings, orchestra and other fine arts studies.

Ott said the fine arts aspect of the school is important because it honors a special part of Temple’s culture.

“Fine arts, that is the lifeblood of Temple, Texas,” he said. “Having this campus really got the community energized. I think that helped with the bond passing because there’s a genuine interest in fine arts in Temple, Texas, and we’re excited about it.”

The school is also located within reasonable distance to students’ homes.

The district said it left about 20% of the space open for transfers for the fine arts programs.

Ott said it was not a problem for the district to fill the classrooms with teachers at the new school. However, he said the district did struggle with costs.

“Finding the teachers hasn’t been the hard part,” he said. “What has been a struggle is paying for them and paying for the resources.”

He said costs have increased due to inflation, but state funding has stayed the same. The district adopted a deficit budget in June to be able to match its expenses.

“We’re hoping that we’re able to accrue savings or find additional ways for revenue to close that gap by the end of the budget year,” he said.

He said closing that gap will not include cutting any teacher positions.

“I’m not going to cut teachers because we need them,” he said. “We have to have teachers in front of kids.”

Ott said the district is expected to grow by 150-200 students each year for the next few years. With that, the district is planning to expand its high school, expand Kennedy Power Elementary and build a new middle school to accommodate for the continued growth.

He said they could propose a possible bond in the fall of 2025 to fund these projects. He said, eventually the district will be landlocked, but for now, they are working with other entities to keep up with the growth in Central Texas. Ott said the district is forecasting the major growth to taper off in about three years.

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