Lower enrollment growth projections at the elementary level and construction difficulties have persuaded the College Station (Texas) school district to delay the opening of its 10th elementary school to fall 2019.
The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports the school, which voters approved in a 2015 bond election, was set to open in fall 2018 along with the district's third middle school. The elementary is projected to cost $24.22 million.
But earlier this month, the City of College Station asked the district if it would consider opening the elementary school in 2019 because of concerns over updating roadways and providing sewer services to the site in time for a 2018 opening.
In addition, elementary enrollment projections for the next five years are lower than the estimates contained in the 2015 bond proposal; Superintendent Clark Ealy says the new projections convinced administrators that College Station will have enough capacity to be able to postpone the 10th elementary school for a year.
Ealy also says the delay means the district won't have to open more than one campus in the same year.
