By Anton Riecher
In the Devine-Natalia-Lytle region, Medina County voters will decide on more than $54.4 million in bond issue proposals for their respective school districts this May. While certainly significant, that burden pales by comparison to what Medina Valley ISD alone is asking on its May ballot — $290 million.
MVISD board member Jason Bonney attributes the need to phenomenal expansion in enrollment experienced by the district.
“For the past few years we’ve had a crazy amount of enrollment and growth,” Bonney said. “We rank as the fifth fastest growing school district in Texas.”
The $290 million request comes only about a year after voters approved a $376 million bond issue for construction of a second high school and other district improvements, district superintendent Scott Caloss said in a video posted to the district’s website.
“In last year’s bonds we addressed the overcapacity at our high school,” Caloss said. “In this bond, we are having to address the capacities of our middle schools and elementaries.”
If approved, the new bond issue would cover the addition of a middle school and two elementary campuses, among other district improvements.
Medina Valley ISD covers 296 square miles of Medina and Bexar counties including the communities of Castroville, La Coste, Rio Medina, Dunlay and Mico. The district boasts more than 8,700 students distributed across eight campuses – five elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school.
Despite the trumpeting of development along the Austin-San Antonio corridor, a generous amount of San Antonio’s metropolitan growth is moving west into Medina County. The county subdivision map displays an explosion of housing projects west of Loop 1604 bearing names such as Potranco West, Alsatian Oaks, Megan’s Landing and Hunter Ranch.
That expansion shows no sign of letting up. Only last March plans for a new $700 million subdivision between Castroville and San Antonio was announced. Add to this Microsoft’s new $1 billion data center just outside of Castroville and the result is a school district swamped by incoming families.
“Because the growth in the San Antonio-Bexar County area is so overwhelming the current middle schools and high school just cannot facilitate the number of students projected,” Bonney said. “We are projected to be at our maximum in our current middle schools and elementary schools by next year.”
As of 2023 district enrollment stood at 8,727 students, of which slightly more than 5,225 attend elementary schools. Even with a new elementary opening this fall, that attendance is expected to be over the district’s capacity by 2025-26. By 2028-29, elementary attendance is projected to reach 7,000 students.
The district’s middle schools, with slightly over 2,000 students in attendance, are also expected to be overcapacity by 2025-26. Middle school attendance is expected to hit 3,000 students by 2028-29.
Within a decade, total district enrollment is projected to swell by at least 1,000 new students, projections posted on the district’s website state.
While Texans continue to struggle with high property taxes, a key point in winning support for the MVISD bond issue is that no tax rate increase is tied to the latest bond proposal. Each new home sold increases the appraised value of the property it stands on, Bonney said.
The projection on population growth in the next few years stands at between 10 and 12 percent. That represents 14,000 new homes either…
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