Education
BY CHLOE YOUNG
Leander High School renovations start
The impact
The LHS campus layout has become disjointed due to undergoing several expansions over the years, Trimble said. The redesign is occurring so the campus can accommodate around 2,400 students in the same way a modern LISD high school campus would, he said. “The building was built for educating high school students in 1984, and so a lot has changed, and this is a great opportunity to bring it up to the same speci cations that we would be building a new campus,” he said. The auxiliary gym may be used for practices by sports teams and will allow extracurricular groups, such as the cheer and dance teams, to expand. Additionally, the new layout will provide com- munity members greater access to the auxiliary gym by moving it to the outer edge of campus, Trimble said.
Voters approved $23.5 million in the district’s 2023 bond election to create the LHS Master Plan Redesign and fund Phase 1 construction. In February, the LISD board of trustees approved allocating an additional $32.3 million in capital projects interest earnings toward Phase 1. Phase 1 is expected to be complete by the beginning of the 2026-27 school year, Trimble said. LISD aims to complete the project’s most disruptive work during the summer to minimize the impact on students, he said.
Leander High School is set to undergo a series of major renovations over the next few years. Built in 1984, LHS is Leander ISD’s oldest comprehensive high school and has been expanded nine times over the last 40 years, Chief Operating O cer Jeremy Trimble said in an interview with Community Impact . The district is now renovating the campus’s athletic facilities as the rst step in a multiphase project to ensure LHS meets the standards of the district’s newer high school campuses, he said.
Renovating athletic facilities Phase 1 moves Leander High School’s auxiliary gym from the back to the front of the campus next to the competition gym and performing arts center.
Main athletics areas Competition gym Auxiliary gym Dance
Looking ahead
COMPETITION GYM
Current layout
Redesigned layout
Leander High School
The district is in the early stages of developing a design for future phases of the master plan, Trimble said. A committee recommended future phases include relocating career, technology and education classrooms from portables to inside the building and reorienting the school’s front entrance, according to the district. LISD would need to pass another bond to fund future phases, Trimble said.
Phase 1A
Phase 1B
Phase 1C
Phase 1D
Timeline: construction began
Timeline: construction began in August Description: constructing an auxiliary gym and new weight room
Timeline: construction set to begin next summer Description: remodeling existing athletics facilities including locker rooms, showers and coaches o ces
Timeline: construction set to begin next summer Description: remodeling the current dance space and auxiliary gym into a wrestling room, and dance and cheer gym
this summer Description:
relocating utilities for a future auxiliary gym and weight room
SOURCE: LEANDER ISD COMMUNITY IMPACT
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CEDAR PARK FAR NORTHWEST AUSTIN EDITION
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