Killeen ISD has spent $118 million constructing a new high school with an additional $12 million on a new stadium that will be on the same campus.
The new high school on Chaparral Road will be their largest campus once it is done.
"In addition to amenities at our current campuses, this one will have a wrestling room, multiple weight rooms, a 1,200 seat auditorium," said Adam Rich, executive director for facility services. "It will be our second regional stadium that will be built for 4,500 hundred fans.”
Once the doors open it will hold over 3,000 students and get rid of the need for portable buildings on the high school campuses.
"The ability to get rid of portable buildings and the safety that it will bring to the campuses will make a huge difference across the district,” said Rich.
The new school means classrooms won’t be overcrowded but a lot of students will be relocated to the new campus from other schools like Ellison and Harker Heights.
It is a rezoning that will affect hundreds of current and future students but a step the district said has to happen.
"Our four comprehensive schools are overcapacity," said Dr. John Craft, KISD Superintendent. "Ellison High School and Harker Heights High School in particular, for really the last several years have been overcapacity. We need to relieve these schools.”
The district is currently hosting public hearings within the community to inform families of the plan to rezone, and to get what they say is much-needed feedback from the community.
"Ultimately these high schools, as all of our schools, are the community’s schools," said Dr. Craft. "So, we’d like to hear what they have to say and their concerns and their suggestions. In fact, the other night at Harker Heights High School I asked 'What would you propose to do differently?”
While hundreds of students are going to have to change schools, some will fall under a grandfather clause allowing them to stay at their current if they provide their own transportation.
The district is still in the hearing phase of the process and the exact maps for rezoning are not yet drawn.
