Dallas

How Frisco ISD Is Dealing With Growing Pains

Frisco ISD has been the fastest growing district in Texas for years

Frisco Independent School District enrolled its 60,000th student this year, and the district isn't finished growing.

"We like to think it's because we have a good product," Deputy Superintendent Todd Fouche said.

Fouche said Frisco ISD has been the fastest growing school district in the state for years. It's the fourth-largest school district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and still growing, thanks in part to business growth in the city. To keep up with the pace, the district has built nearly 70 schools since 1993.

"With community support, we've gone to the voters and said, 'We have more students, and we have more students, and can we build more schools,'" Fouche said. "This is our plan and that's kind of how we've done it."

Voters passed a bond measure in 2014 that will fund a new high school on the Frisco/McKinney border. The district will break ground in late spring/early summer. The school district uses a "small school" model for high schools, capping enrollment at 2,100.

"They're still fairly large high schools, but compared to other districts around us, our high schools are typically smaller," Fouche said. "Because we want students to be engaged in as many opportunities as they can be."

In 2016 voters rejected a tax ratification. Then, last November, voters gave the green light to a bond measure to fund building several new schools. They also approved a tax ratification measure that will allow the district to hire more teachers.

"Class size has crept up," Fouche said, adding that Frisco is routinely ranked among the top districts asking the state for class size waivers due to population growth.

Right now the district is planning for an enrollment of 70,000. So how much growth is too much?

"That's a great question," Fouche said. "If you look at the work the city's doing and the work that the school district is doing to make this area feel like what people think it's gonna feel like, I think that helps."

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