By Karen Zurawski | February 24, 2015

Photos By Eddy Matchette/Freelance

The Katy Independent School District held a ground-breaking ceremony Feb. 19 to celebrate construction of its 14th junior high school. Alton Fraley, KISD superintendent, fourth from right, and members of the construction committee, man their shovels at the construction site. 2 of 12

Silver Ranch resident Ali Johnk is accustomed to construction occurring around her Katy neighborhood, and more is on the way as work begins soon on the 14th junior high school in the Katy Independent School District.

The land was relatively wide open when her family moved to the subdivision 2½ years ago. "It's really developed quite a bit," she said at the Feb. 19 groundbreaking for the junior high school in Hawks Landing.

"We bought with the understanding the school would be built here," said Johnk, who has two children, one in elementary and one in preschool. "We're very pleased and excited for the community and neighborhood. There's a lot of comfort to know that a school is being built by homes."

Hawks Landing resident Ricky Gonzalez said he, too, was pleased the district was building a school to relieve crowding, but said the plan has pluses and minuses. On the plus side, the school will raise property values; on the negative side, it will draw traffic to a two-lane road - Hawks Prairie Boulevard - that's the entranceway to the neighborhood.

Noting the buses and other vehicles parked alongside the road for the groundbreaking that narrowed the traffic lane, he said he expected to see that situation repeated when school is open as buses and parents come to pick up students.

Andy Meyers, Precinct 3 Fort Bend County commissioners, said Monday that the developer has been asked and is expected to widen the road from the current 28 feet to 41 feet near the school.

At the Thursday ceremony, Superintendent Alton Frailey told the gathering of about 50 people that the district's enrollment now totaled more than 70,700. He credited the foresight, work and study by the 200-member bond committee that resulted in last November's successful $478.1 million bond election for where they are now. Nearly half of the bond funds are earmarked for six new schools, and junior high No. 14 is the first of that group to be built at a total estimated cost of $39.2 million.

David Kendler, assistant superintendent for Area 3 Campuses, said that the junior high would relieve crowding at Seven Lakes and WoodCreek junior high schools, two of the 23 schools within Area 3.

Next year, enrollment is expected to reach 2,000 at WoodCreek, he said. Junior high No. 14 is being built for 1,400 students and is a refined copy of Seven Lakes Junior High.

The new school won't open at capacity, he said; that will take several years to occur as he noted the shift in growth from the southwest quadrant of the district to north of Interstate 10, along the newly opened Grand Parkway.

"This part of the district has seen tremendous growth," board president Bryan Michalsky said at the groundbreaking.

He said construction of the school is happening not a moment too soon. "We need it," he said.

Columbus-based Drymalla Construction Co. is building the school, and district officials estimate construction will be completed by June 2016.

King Lakes resident Maria Mues has an eighth-grader at WoodCreek Junior High and a third-grader at Kilpatrick Elementary who will go to the new school. Her family moved to the district about 18 months ago to provide a better education for their children, she said. "We're very excited to have a new school in the area."

A Katy-area resident since 1977, Stan Stanley, who has an elementary named after him in the Katy ISD, noted that the district only had one high school when he first came. The district now has seven.

Katy-area economic growth has provided the larger tax base to support the district's expansion and allowed it to build the 14th junior high, he said, adding that in the last decade the Katy area has added 13,000 new jobs and more than $3 billion in assets. Referring to ongoing construction, he called it "a tribute to the spirit of the community and our residents."