Becoming middle schools
Forest Meadow Junior High Status: under construction Estimated completion: 2024 Expected change in enrollment: 735 Cost: $63 million
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Richardson ISD has eight junior high and 41 elementary schools. The district is planning to renovate or rebuild all its junior high campuses by the start of the 2030-31 school year to create middle school campuses that serve grades 6-8.
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This rendering depicts the exterior of the new Forest Meadow Middle School. (Courtesy Richardson ISD)
Middle schools renovations expected to be completed by the 2030 31 school year:
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Lake Highlands Junior High Status: early scope work Estimated completion: 2024 Expected change in enrollment : 669 Cost: $94 million
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Apollo Junior High Liberty Junior High STEM Academy Parkhill Junior High Richardson North Junior High Richardson West Junior High Westwood Junior High
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This rendering shows the interior of the new Lake Highlands Middle School. (Courtesy Richardson ISD)
SOURCE: RICHARDSON ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
infrastructure and safety projects, including the middle school trans- formation project, was approved in the 2021 bond. The district has budgeted over $60 million for the complete scope of renovations at Forest Meadow Junior High, which is $17.5 million more than what was originally estimated. Construction at Forest Meadow is scheduled to be completed during the summer of 2024. At Lake Highlands Junior High, the first phase of the project was approved at a price of just over $81 million and will consist of the complete construction of a three- story middle school on the existing site that can house around 1,500 students. The district has budgeted $94 mil- lion for the entire project. District officials said feedback from
the community about both projects has been positive, and they hope to propose similar projects for the dis- trict’s six other junior highs in the next five years. A benefit to the district District officials said they hope to increase enrollment for pre-K stu- dents through the middle school transformation. All existing elemen- tary schools serve pre-K through sixth grade. Branum said the extra room created by the removal of sixth graders would allow the district to support the increased demand for pre-K enrollment, which is expected to increase to nearly 1,900 students by the 2023-24 school year, accord- ing to a 2021 demographer report. “We know that [pre-K] is defi- nitely something that our commu- nity wants to see our district invest
in,” Branum said. “Our elementary schools haven’t had the capacity to accept every pre-K student that would want a spot. We think middle school configuration will play a big part in providing that room.” Brentfield and Mohawk elemen- tary schools are expected to reach capacity within the next decade, according to a 2021 demographer’s report. Summer Martin, RISD’s direc- tor of counseling services, said it is better for the district to group stu- dents at school more closely based on age. She said the eight-year dif- ference between pre-K students and sixth graders is a large gap. “Developmentally, it is more appropriate to have our 12-year- old[s] with our seventh and eighth graders rather than our pre-K stu- dents, because they’re starting to go through the same things,” Martin
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RISD Tabitha Branum said the use of junior high schools is outdated for a modern school district, with 95% of districts in Texas adopting middle schools rather than junior highs. This new system will solve campus capac- ity issues for the district while pro- viding more academic and social assistance opportunities for RISD students, Branum said. Superintendent “I just think this provides an excellent opportunity for us to now have the sixth through eighth grad- ers all under one roof,” said Susan Burt, Forest Meadow Junior High principal. Funds from the 2021 RISD bond will be used to pay for the Lake Highlands and Forest Meadow proj- ects. A $694 million proposition for
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