New and relocated schools

Key facts

• New elementary No. 31: $71.4 million on the 2023 bond list; opening planned Aug. 2028¹²
• New elementary No. 32: $79.9 million on the 2023 bond list; now a move of Mason Elementary, not extra seats¹³
• Not yet committed for the two schools: about $140.6 million (Oct. 31, 2025)⁴
• Empty elementary seats in 2036-37, as projected: about 7,760⁵
• Current cost estimates for No. 31 and No. 32: not shown to the public²

In short

The 2023 bond promised two new elementary schools. Both are planned for Aug. 2028.² One is now a new building for Mason Elementary’s students, not extra seats.³ The current cost estimates for both have not been shown to the public.²

The 30-second version

The 2023 bond promised two new elementary schools. Both are still coming, in Aug. 2028.

One of them changed. School No. 32 was sold as a school for growth. Now it is a new building for Mason Elementary’s students. The district said its “enrollment projections have changed since the original justification.”³

Think of buying a second car because the family is growing. Then the family stops growing. You still buy the car, but now it replaces the old one.

That can be a fair choice. But voters approved a growth school, and the public has not seen a cost estimate for the new plan.

What was promised, and what changed

Project	On the 2023 voter list	Now	Source
Elementary No. 31 (north)	$71,432,375	Still planned, opens Aug. 2028	12
Elementary No. 32	$79,944,260, for growth	Relocation of Mason; opens Aug. 2028	13
Early College High School	$43.99M new building	Cut before the vote to $6.99M; now $10.76M (+54%); a move to the former Faubion building is being explored	67
Early childhood center	About $37M to convert a building	Built new for $64M, paid by cutting other promised projects	8

Why this matters for money

• Bond money and operating money are separate. Bond money builds the school. It cannot pay teachers. See how bonds work.
• A new school adds running costs. We estimate about $1.0–1.4 million a year for each new elementary. That is our estimate, from the district’s own closure figures: about $1,085,700–$1,401,800 per school.⁹
• A relocation adds less. If Mason closes when No. 32 opens, the running cost mostly moves. It does not double. If Mason stays open, it adds.
• The district has lots of empty seats. The demographer’s newest numbers show elementary schools 68% full in 2026-27. By 2036-37, about 1,775 students would be over capacity at crowded schools, while about 7,760 seats sit empty elsewhere.⁵ Most empty seats are central and south. The crowding is in the north.

Trying to kill our own theory

Our first theory: “The district is building schools it doesn’t need.”

What weakens it:

• School No. 31 serves the crowded north (Tarvin is projected at 187% full by 2036-37).⁵ Based on that projection, it looks needed.
• School No. 32 is a replacement, not new seats. So it isn’t “more schools than needed.”
• The district did tell the public it changed No. 32’s purpose.³

What survives: Forecasts have been too high every year since 2023-24.¹⁰ School No. 31 was justified in Oct. 2026 with the demographer’s older forecast, not the newest one.² And no current cost estimate for either school is public.

Prop A was a separate money choice

In the unofficial combined Nov. 3, 2026 returns, 55.25% of votes were against Prop A and 44.75% were for it. The result is unofficial until the board canvasses the final county totals on Nov. 17.¹¹ Prop A concerned the operating tax rate, not repayment of the 2023 construction bonds. The schools’ building costs and schedules remain separate questions.¹¹

Early College High School

Some residents say the move to the Faubion building was planned before the public heard about it.

What we can show:

• On Sept. 30, 2025, the board adopted a long-range planning resolution, 7–0.¹²
• The adopted resolution says administration “shall initially consider meeting district facility needs, using existing facilities and resources through co-location and/or repurposing.” It names no building; a draft list that included Early College High School was taken out before the vote.¹³
• In Oct. 2026, staff pointed to that clause and called Early College High School a facility need. We have this from the auto-captions, and a second machine transcription of the meeting audio matches it.¹⁴
• No construction cost estimate for reusing the Faubion building appears in any board packet through Oct. 15, 2026.⁷

Verdict for now: partly supported. The direction was set by Sept. 2025. The resolution text names no building. Whether the move itself was decided before the public process needs the site memo staff promised (“We can lay that out”).

What to watch next

The Oct. 29 workshop report describes a planned Nov. 19 construction-price decision and questions about waiting. It rests on video and automatic captions until minutes post, so we treat it as provisional. The board has not approved full construction for either school.

What we still don’t know

• Current cost estimates and building sizes for No. 31 and No. 32.
• Whether Mason’s building closes, and what happens to it.
• The Early College site evaluation memo.

See also School capacity, Enrollment forecasts, Early childhood center, the Oct. 29 workshop, bond cash waiting, and The 2023 bond.

The district’s side

• School No. 31 responds to crowding in the north. School No. 32 would replace Mason rather than add a second campus.
• Voters approved both schools in 2023. Design can continue while the construction price is being prepared.
• The board has not yet approved full construction for either school. That keeps the final decision with it.

Questions to ask

• What is the latest construction estimate for each school?
• Will Mason close if the replacement school opens?
• Which school-building decisions require a separate board vote?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 5, 2026: We updated this page for the unofficial result of the separate operating-tax election and added the upcoming construction decision.

Numbers marked “our math” and “our estimate” are our estimates, not official figures. The notes show the inputs and the steps.

Footnotes

1. Board packet, Feb. 16, 2023, bond recommendations, p.78: ES No. 31 $71,432,375; ES No. 32 $79,944,260. Packet. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Board packet, Oct. 1, 2026, elementary schools update: construction from spring 2027, opening Aug. 2028; no current cost figures shown; No. 31 justification table uses the Nov. 2025 demographer study. Packet pp.104–138. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Same packet, p.130: “Enrollment projections have changed since the original justification for the campus”; project is now a relocation of the Mason community. Packet p.130. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Board packet, Dec. 11, 2025, 2023 bond status report (as of Oct. 31, 2025): EL32 $75.57M and EL31 $65.08M budget not yet spent or under contract. Our math. Packet p.357. ↩

5. Demographer (PASA) study, packet for the Oct. 29, 2026 meeting, campus tables. Seat totals are our math over the listed campuses. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Feb. 16, 2023 packet p.83 ($43.99M building cut to $6,991,130); Dec. 11, 2025 status report p.355 ($10,761,290). Packet. ↩

7. Board packet, Oct. 1, 2026: job-order contracting for the Faubion repurposing; no construction estimate. Packet pp.7, 61–68, 84. ↩ ↩²

8. See early childhood center. Dec. 11, 2025 status report p.357. ↩

9. Our estimate range from the district’s actual closure-budget and first estimates: $1,085,700 and $1,401,800 a year, reported in the May 29, 2025 packet, page 105 and the June 18, 2026 packet, page 138; see closures. It is a planning range, not a prediction of the new schools’ running costs. ↩

10. Every demographer forecast in our database from 2023-24 on came in above actual enrollment. See enrollment forecasts. ↩

11. Leander ISD, “Proposition A Decided; Voters Elect New Trustees”, Nov. 4, 2026: against 47,863 (55.25%), for 38,772 (44.75%). The district says all results stay unofficial until its Nov. 17 canvass of final county totals. Its results page links to Williamson and Travis county results. This page takes no position on that vote. ↩ ↩²

12. Board minutes, Sept. 30, 2025, long-range planning resolution, 7–0. ↩

13. Adopted resolution, Sept. 30, 2025, p.3 (BoardBook doc 14468443); draft vs. adopted comparison. ↩

14. Board meeting video, Oct. 1, 2026, at 1:14:15. The quote comes from the meeting video’s automatic captions and matches a second machine transcription of the audio at that time stamp; there is no written record. ↩