April 4th Tomball ISD Meeting at Lakewood

I attended the April 4th meeting at Lakewood Elementary school to discuss Tomball ISD's upcoming Facility Study Process. This is the first such meeting that I have attended and was surprised at the level of tension in the meeting from the very beginning.

Some of the anger voiced at the meeting involved Tomball ISD's failure to begin this process earlier. Superintendent Neubauer indicated that the goal was to undergo a Facility study every 5 years and it has been 7 years since the last study was done. The Board members indicated that they didn't feel the District was growing fast enough to warrant the study, so they delayed the process until this year. While I do not have any kids in Tomball High School, every indication is that THS is over crowded already and will continue to worsen until the issue is addressed.

I think the end result of this study will be a big group of really smart people getting together and saying..."Hey, I think we need a new High School". The problem with the timing is that any new High School will not open until January 2010 at the earliest. Given a modest 3% increase in attendance over the next few years, that puts the 2009-10 enrollment right at 3000 kids. This will certainly have Tomball High School pushed to its max. That being said, this is the situation we have to deal with, so lets move forward and try and do what is right to make sure that our kids get the best education possible.

Of course, one of the main questions everyone is wondering about is where this new High School will be built, if approved. Once again, I think rumors and misinformation have led everyone to believe that all of this has already been decided, but it hasn't. I have my opinion and I am sure you do as well, but the most logical choice would be to put the new High School in the southern part of the District. I think it would be difficult for anyone without a preset agenda would come to any other conclussion. After the new construction of Northpointe Intermediate School and Willow Wood Junior High in the Southern part of the District, the logical next step is to build the High School in the area as well.