Aledo ISD should say now what the next bond is for

What the record shows

The 2019 bond, recommended by the Bearcat Growth Committee on Aug. 19, 2019 and approved by voters Nov. 5, 2019, built Annetta Elementary and Charles McAnally Middle School, converted McAnally Intermediate into Jewell Elaine Vandagriff Elementary and the old Vandagriff into the Early Childhood Academy, and renovated Aledo Middle School.

The 2023 bond built Lynn McKinney Elementary, which opened in August 2024, rebuilt Aledo High School under two guaranteed maximum prices beginning June 2024, and paid for 13 buses, playgrounds and the safety and security project approved May 20, 2024.

On June 20, 2022, the board's facility planning subcommittee reported that the district's updated demographic report showed the need for additional campuses; the board charged the Aledo Growth Committee in July 2022 and seated it in August. The district hired Population and Survey Analysts as its demographer in January 2022.

Aledo ISD's enrollment, from the federal Common Core of Data the Ledger now publishes: 4,654 students in 2010-11, 7,368 in 2021-22, 8,161 in 2023-24 and 8,430 in 2024-25. The district's own July 25, 2022 release said its demographer projected 11,703 students by fall 2026 on the moderate scenario, with five of six elementary schools exceeding capacity by 2024-2025 and the middle schools and high school by 2027-2028 in the district's configuration at the time. Enrollment by campus is on the same page; functional capacity by campus is not published.

A 2025-2026 Aledo Growth Committee, charged with high school learning space, presented its final recommendations to the board at the April 2026 regular meeting, per the district's site; the Ledger's thread on future high school space carries the board's actions since.

Aledo ISD enrollment by year and campus · Tracker: the 2023 bond · June 20, 2022: the need for additional campuses · Aug. 19, 2019: the bond recommendation · Thread: future high school space · Aledo ISD, July 25, 2022: the demographer's report · Aledo ISD: the 2025-2026 growth committee's April 2026 report

Assessment

The fair answer to "has the district planned for the growth its demographers forecast" is yes, and the record shows how. Three times in seven years the board has chartered a committee of residents and staff, given it the demographic report and the financials, and let it recommend what to build: the Bearcat Growth Committee that produced the 2019 program, the Aledo Growth Committee charged in 2022 that led to the 2023 program, and the 2025-2026 committee on high school space that reported this April. Four schools, a rebuilt high school and a converted campus came out of that process, on time, and the district's financial rating held through all of it. This is not a district that has been surprised by growth.

It is, though, a district whose planning happens in rooms most residents never see. The committees work from a demographer's report the board receives in a workshop; the report itself is rarely posted; enrollment by campus against each campus's functional capacity, the single table that tells a family whether their school is full, appears in the minutes as a slide the public did not get. In July 2022 the district said it had ended the year with nearly 7,400 students and that its demographer expected 11,703 by this fall. Whether it got there, and which campuses are over the line, is not something a resident can look up.

So the ask is not a bond and not a date. It is the numbers, in public, on a schedule. Each fall, enrollment and functional capacity for every campus on one page; the demographer's report posted in full the day the board receives it; and, whenever a growth committee reports, its recommendations posted with the date they were made, so residents can see what the committee proposed and what the board did with it, starting with the high school recommendations delivered in April. A district that plans this well has nothing to lose by showing its work, and a bond campaign that starts from published numbers is a campaign residents can judge.

The Ledger will build the enrollment-and-capacity series by campus from the district's records and report it each fall, and will follow the April recommendations from the board's first action on them to the night they go to voters, if they do.

Right of reply: Aledo ISD Board of Trustees and the superintendent received this piece the morning it ran and have a standing offer of the same space to respond. Corrections to the record section run at the top and on the corrections page.