Remember how the superintendent told the Bond Committee that there would be 3,000+ coming to Katy ISD every year from now on and how we NEED new schools to accommodate all those new students--even before they get here?  Remember how he talked about "Fast Growth School Districts" and how Katy ISD was one of them? 

Have you noticed, as I did, that the superintendent wasn't out crowing about all those students he was expecting actually appearing on the first day of school like he usually does?

There's a reason. The first day of school there were only 68,144 students who appeared. (It's almost like no one tells the students when school is starting!)  The second day there were 69,133.  Isn't it odd that 989 students wouldn't bother to show up the first day of school?  Especially is it odd if one understands the attendance rules in the State of Texas.

Here's the point.  The Bond Committee and the public have been hammered this year with the concept of KISD being a "fast growth" school district.  We've also been inundated with the "fact" that "3,000 plus students" are going to show up every year for the next millennium.

Well guess what?  That many didn't show up, and I realize there's still time for them to get to 3,000, but when they hang their hat on 3,000 they are actually expecting fewer than they did ten years ago because the total population of the school district is higher, and 3,000 new students percentage wise is less, not more, than we used to increase every year. In 2008, the last year the school district grew by 3,000 students, there were 53,763 students.  Now we have over 69,000.  That's almost 15,000 more students, so to keep up with 2008 numbers, the increase should be more than just 3,000. 

The District is under their projection this year by 1,307 students!

If we didn't build schools to help developers sell houses and landowners to foist off land on the District, we could wait to see how many students actually move here BEFORE we start passing huge bonds to build schools and other amenities based on faulty projections. Maybe then we could build schools where they are REALLY needed instead of where the District just happens to own a piece of land.