Potential school site on White Rock Trail
The Richardson ISD will negotiate to potentially purchase land for the construction of a new elementary school at the corner of White Rock Trail and Walnut Hill Lane under a new proposal approved by trustees at a called study session Tuesday night. The property, which is currently for sale and now contains two office buildings, would host an additional school to alleviate crowding at White Rock Elementary and halt WRE’s seemingly inevitable growth beyond 1000 students.
The office buildings, located at 9601 and 9603 White Rock Trail and perhaps best known for housing Rob Braun’s State Farm Insurance Agency, sit on just 4.6 acres of sloping land – an imperfect choice. The property does have one thing going for it, though. It’s available.
White Rock has no time to waste.
RISD’s demographer, Bob Templeton, says WRE will enroll 955 students next year, well beyond its capacity of 912. Already, parents say, the cafeteria and gym can barely handle current students and the real question is: “how big is too big?” to be an effective “neighborhood” school?
RISD has the ability, says VP of Finance Tony Harkleroad, to pay for both purchase of land and construction of the school. Money to buy land was added to the bond back when the board opted to shift $27 million from multipurpose practice facilities and library redesign and instead build classrooms. The new school could be constructed by increasing the bond from $417 to $437 million. Portables would likely be used at White Rock until the new school is built.
Superintendent Dr. Kay Waggoner did not say how far along the process may have moved (some of the discussion took place in closed session), but the board voted unanimously that the district “will continue to negotiate to submit an offer and execute a purchase contract” for the property.
The board will continue their discussions at their Feb. 1 regular meeting.
Office building on White Rock Trail
Office building, White Rock Trail
