Calfee Middle School opens despite ongoing water dispute with Conroe From the cover
How we got here
grants a provider the right to provide water and sewer service in a defined geographic area. Under state law, the city could not provide per- manent water service until Aqua Texas released its rights and the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved the transfer, Conroe officials said. Aqua Texas is a water and wastewater provider in north, central and southeast Texas. The com- pany agreed to release the property in February 2024, per city documents. WISD filed with the PUCT in March 2025 to be released from the CCN, which was granted by the PUCT Aug. 5, Conroe city officials said. “We have coordinated relentlessly across mul- tiple agencies ... to navigate these complexities, seeking collaboration and clarity,” WISD’s Director of Communications Sarah Blakelock said Aug. 5. Meanwhile, Conroe officials allowed early water tap installation for construction, but required a signed waiver from WISD acknowledging that those taps couldn’t be used until PUCT’s approval. WISD’s water tap permit was approved in April 2024, and it connected to the city’s water and sewer in May 2024.
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Willis ISD’s new Calfee Middle School welcomed students on time Aug. 13 after disputes with the city of Conroe over water service ended just days before the school year began. The disagreement centered on which entity had legal rights to serve the campus, how quickly those rights could be transferred and whether WISD could receive city water before final agree- ments were in place. What happened Interactions between the city of Conroe, WISD and Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough became public Aug. 4 due to the status of water services to Calfee Middle School. The situation sparked outcry from the community and drew attention to the underlying legal dispute over water service to the property. The property for the new middle school—pur- chased in 2020 and built using funds from WISD’s $143 million 2022 bond—sat inside Aqua Texas’ Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, not Conroe’s, per the city of Conroe. A CCN legally
2020
Dec. 17: Willis ISD purchases property at 7373 Longmire Road, which is located in Aqua Texas’ Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, or CCN, area, not the city of Conroe. Aqua Texas is a water and wastewater provider in North, Central and Southeast Texas.
Zooming in While the campus was under construction, Conroe City Council approved a temporary development moratorium for the city’s northern portion in August 2024, which City Administrator Gary Scott said limited certain types of projects and heightened scrutiny on water use. However, the city allowed temporary water use at the school for testing, and city officials said valves were locked again Aug. 1 and remained so
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