Iowa Colony High School is under construction and scheduled to open this year.
Pin Lim
The sounds of heavy machinery will be heard around Alvin ISD this year and for several more to come.
The district is one of the fastest-growing in the Houston area, and it looks to continue on that track. Last fall, a demographic study showed 28 subdivisions being built in its footprint, with another 13 on the way.
That study also showed that AISD had an enrollment of 28,140. In the 2017-18 school, that figure was 24,855.
In the 2031-32 school year, district enrollment is projected at 34,697.
Growth in northern end of district
Much of that growth is in the northern end of the Alvin ISD footprint, and Iowa Colony High School, which is expected to open this year to accommodate an enrollment of up to 2,500, will be able to accommodate some of that growth.
The school is located a stone’s throw from Freedom Field, which opened in 2018 and can hold more than 10,000 spectators.
The Iowa Colony campus is slated to open with freshmen and sophomores the first year and will add a grade level each year until it houses students in grades 9-12.
Ashley Marquez has been named the first principal of the school.
Major renovations
G.W. Harby Junior High also is undergoing major renovations. The aging campus was shut down and students were relocated. Harby’s seventh- and eighth-graders are now housed at the old Alvin Elementary School, while its sixth-graders have been dispersed to Alvin, Manvel and Fairview junior highs.
“Harby is completely gutted right now and we are renovating that school,” Alvin ISD communications director Renee Rives said.
The renovated Harby Junior High is expected to open this fall.
Work also is about to begin on a couple of other schools.
Several new schools planned
Ground breaking is expected for the Debra Orum Nichols-Wilma Fountain Mock Elementary School in the early part of this year, and a 2023 opening is planned.
The school, which is named after two longtime Alvin ISD educators, will be in Iowa Colony’s Sierra Vista subdivision.
Looking down the road, “we have Barbara Bennett Elementary school coming up,” Rives said. “That one has not broken ground yet.”
Also planned is the LeRoy Castro Junior High School, which will be on the campus of Iowa Colony High School. Castro will be named for the principal of Alvin Junior High School who died recently.
John DeLapp is a freelance writer. He can be contacted at texdelapp@gmail.com.
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