The schools are done. The buildings are sitting off Patriot Way and SH 130, near East View High School, ready to go. But Georgetown ISD won’t be opening them in August.
At a Feb. 2 board meeting, Superintendent Devin Padavil announced that the district is pushing back the opening of Jessie Daniel Ames Elementary and Middle School No. 5 to the 2027-28 school year. That’s a full year’s delay on campuses that were built with voter-approved bond money and were supposed to ease crowding across GISD this fall.
So what happened?
The short version: fewer kids, tighter budget.
When Georgetown ISD put a $649 million bond on the ballot in 2024 — and voters passed it — demographers were projecting enrollment of nearly 15,500 students. The latest count: about 14,000.
That 1,500-student gap has real consequences. Bond funds pay for construction, not for keeping the lights on. Staffing a new school means payroll, administrators, support staff — operational costs the bond doesn’t cover. District officials estimated that opening both campuses as planned would’ve created a $1.75 million shortfall in the 2026-27 budget, and that’s a hole that gets filled by cutting elsewhere: bigger class sizes, no raises for teachers.
“We’re literally working with less as we try to stay competitive on paying our teachers what they deserve,” Padavil said. Georgetown ISD already carries the lowest tax rate in Williamson County and correspondingly one of the lowest per-student revenue figures.
Why did enrollment growth slow?
You probably already know the answer if you’ve tried to sell a house recently.
When interest rates climbed, the Georgetown housing market cooled fast. In 2023, a home here sold in about a month. Now the average is closer to 100 days on market. Builders pulled back. New subdivisions moved slower. Fewer families moved in. Fewer kids enrolled.
It’s a textbook case of how housing economics ripple through school planning — and why enrollment projections, which looked bulletproof in 2023, ended up missing by over 1,000 students.
What’s the plan now?
GISD is targeting 2027-28 to open both Jessie Daniel Ames Elementary and Middle School No. 5. The new high school is still under construction and remains on schedule for 2028.
The board also approved changes for next school year: a new bell and bus schedule designed to trim operating costs. And district officials floated the possibility of a voter-approval tax rate election in November to generate more revenue and potentially allow open enrollment for students outside district boundaries.
The delay is a responsible call given the numbers. Padavil’s not wrong that opening an underenrolled campus you can’t afford to staff properly is a fast way to create a bigger mess. But parents who were counting on relief from overcrowding at existing elementary schools this fall will need to wait another year.
The Georgetown housing market will eventually pick back up — it always does. When it does, GISD will presumably need those campuses sooner than later. At least they’ll be ready.