Our long range facilities planning committee has met three times so far. We have reviewed the functional capacities of our schools (based on the number of classrooms and square footage):
Thomas Arnold Elementary School = 309 students
Salado Intermediate School = 544 students
Salado Junior High School = 325 students
Salado High School = 692 students
Total capacity of all facilities = 1,870 students
These are the current enrollments of these schools:
Thomas Arnold Elementary School = 450 students
Salado Intermediate School = 574 students
Salado Junior High School = 271 students
Salado High School = 565 students
Total district enrollment = 1,860 students
Thus, this is how our current enrollments compare to the functional capacities of our schools:
Thomas Arnold Elementary School = 130 students over capacity
Salado Intermediate School = 7 students over capacity
Salado Junior High School = space for 54 more students
Salado High School = space for 127 more students
All four schools = space for 10 more students
We have had to convert other spaces such as conference rooms, computer labs, science labs, and cafeterias into classrooms to have enough instructional space for this growing number of students. We have also had to convert portable buildings that were being used for storage at the elementary school and junior high school into classrooms.
Our enrollment has increased from 1,348 students to 1,860 students in the last five years. This is an increase of 512 students or 38%. Our school district’s enrollment has increased the highest percentage of all 81 school districts in the Waco Region 12 Education Service Center area during the past five years. Here are the districts whose enrollments have increased the highest percentage during the past five years:
#1 Salado = 38% increase
#2 Academy = 33% increase
#3 Belton = 17% increase
#4 Midway = 10% increase
#5 Killeen = 6% increase
In an attempt to slow down some of this growth, we stopped accepting out of district transfer students in January, with a few exceptions: children of employees, siblings of current transfer students, and children of active duty military or disabled veterans. Even though the number of transfer students decreased this school year, our enrollment increased 112 students (all resident students that moved into Salado).
Templeton Demographics conducted a demographic study for our school district and these are our ten year enrollment projections for our school district (only considering increases in resident students because of our change in policy regarding out of district transfer students):
2017-2018 = 1,840 (which we have already exceeded by 20 students)
2018-2019 = 1,950
2019-2020 = 2,040
2020-2021 = 2,122
2021-2022 = 2,198
2022-2023 = 2,308
2023-2024 = 2,409
2024-2025 = 2,485
2025-2026 = 2,592
2026-2027 = 2,716
Our long range facility committee meetings are open to the public. The upcoming meetings will be held on the following nights at 6:00 at the Salado ISD Administration Building/Civic Center, located at 601 North Main Street:
Monday, November 6
Monday, December 4
Monday, January 8
Monday, January 22\
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