The good news: Lake Highlands is experiencing a period of tremendous growth, as young families are attracted to the neighborhood and rush to enroll their children in our schools.
The not-so-good news: Some of our schools are at or near capacity, and they’re scrambling to find space for the influx of kids.
Forest Meadow Junior High isn’t waiting until they have overcrowded classrooms with students sharing desks and sitting on the floor. They had that in the 1990s, before ninth graders were moved to the new Freshman Center. This time, with a clear view of growth at elementary schools all over LH, they’re making plans ahead of time.
Principal Charles Bruner has met with RISD administrators in what he calls the “infant” planning and design phases and sent an email to parents “as an opportunity to be proactive with our community on future construction of our facility.”
The new classrooms won’t be portables, they’ll be a bricks-and-mortar construction addition of about 8 classrooms to merge with the original layout and construction style of the building. Construction should be completed, teachers hired and classrooms opened by the start of the 2014-15 school year.
“We have had some full classrooms for several years,” Bruner told me, “but we have been pretty balanced as far as enrollment is concerned.” Over the next two years, FMJH expects enrollment to increase from around 700 to around 850 students, based on a January demographic survey and enrollment at feeder elementaries. Continuous growth after that is expected for the next five years.
“I see [the new addition] as an opportunity to continue producing up-dates for FMJH improvement throughout the building, including increased facilities and staff in all program areas. It also tells me that our Lake Highlands community still believes in their public schools, which energizes all public educators to keep doing their very best.”
Lake Highlands Junior High, which served as LH’s high school campus before LHHS was built, has similar enrollment but isn’t expected to see significant growth until the 2016-17 school year. There are no current plans to add additional capacity there.
“RISD does a great job with fiscal and operational management,” Bruner continued. “They are preparing for children approaching the junior high grade level and not waiting until it is too late. They are building for the future of Lake Highlands.“
