Terri Purdy and her family moved to Dripping Springs in 2014 because she wanted her children to learn in a smaller, more intimate school district.
Living in Southwest Austin, she knew her kids would have access to good schools, but there was a greater appeal in moving to a smaller district, where she could be part of a community of parents and teachers she knew personally.
“It was more about the small-town mindset and the idea that we could be part of a more tight-knit community,” Purdy said.
But in the decade since, growth in Dripping Springs has exploded, along with the needs of the school district.
As rising property prices and taxes in Austin strain family finances, more people are moving to smaller communities in search of intimate environments, affordable living and quality educational programs.
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Bordering rural school districts now grapple with how to preserve their small-town charm while accommodating growth. Some communities have embraced the changes it brings, while others have found the transition harder with higher costs, more traffic and sprawling construction.
Austin’s rapid growth has fueled a runaway real estate market over the last two decades, pushing some residents farther from the city’s core.
Enrollment in the Austin district has dropped 14.8% since 2011 from 86,528 students to 73,730 this year, according to district data. In the same period, the median home price in Austin jumped 176.3%, from $190,000 to $525,000, according to the Texas A&M University Real Estate Research Center.
As development races toward sleepy, Hill Country towns outside of Austin, their school districts struggle to accommodate student needs, leaving them searching for additional money for more space, more equipment and more student programs. Often, relief comes through bond packages.
Dripping Springs roads, once surrounded by open fields, now parallel major subdivisions, shopping centers, wineries and breweries.
“Young families are coming with elementary-aged children, and children who are not in school yet,” said Dripping Springs school Superintendent Holly Morris-Kuentz.“We will continue to see that growth pattern, and I believe that to be part of our growth story here.”
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Small town no more
Like Dripping Springs, Lake Travis has quickly developed from a community of dense woods and scraggly cedar trees to subdivision after subdivision now spread across the rolling slopes. Shops line the chockablock RM 620, a source of daily jokes and gripes.
Since 2000, the Lake Travis district grew from 3,747 students to 11,409 in 2022, a 204.5% increase, the district said.
When Dana Willis moved 12 years ago to Lakeway, which feeds into Lake Travis High School, he said the town still echoed of a sleepy, golf course-centric retirement community.
“It’s become a thriving suburban hub of activity,” Willis said.
From the time Willis’ oldest child went through high school, to this spring, when his youngest of four children will graduate, the campus has grown from about 2,000 students to about 4,000, he said.What has distinguished each child’s experience? More extracurricular options and more congestion, he said.
“The school’s gotten really big, so some kids might feel like it’s a little overwhelming,” Willis said.
Many parents have called for another high school, but that idea has generated opposition in the past, said Superintendent Paul Norton, who joined the district in 2020. It's "the No. 1 topic that I’ve dealt with since I arrived in Lake Travis,” he said.
In November, however, voters approved $176.1 million for a second high school in the district as part of $609.2 million bond proposal.
School board Vice President Bob Dorsett Jr. said he at first opposed the idea.
“I wanted one high school,” said Dorsett, who has served on the school board for seven years and is a 1985 graduate of Lake Travis. “I was very vocal about that.”
The possibility of affecting a winning football program — UIL state champs in its division from 2007 to 2011 — mattered, too, said Dorsett, “I take great pride in what Lake Travis stands for: excellence.”
Dorsett said he came around to supporting a second high school after students said they've had to seek more opportunities to participate in extracurricular programs at an increasingly crowded campus.
In a 4,000-student high school, it’s hard to make the team, win a role in a play or seat in the band.
The district’s solution: Lake Travis High School remains large with a maximum capacity of 3,500 students, while the new, unnamed high school will be built to house up to 2,000 students.
Because of the enrollment size differences, the schools will participate in different divisions for academic, fine art and athletic events, and therefore should not compete against each other or bring split allegiances in the community, Willis said.
Preparing for new residents
Once a far world from Austin, Liberty Hill has swiftly been enveloped in the Central Texas suburb boom, said Kathy Major, Liberty Hill school board vice president.
The district has worked on a guide to teach new families about the city’s traditions, said Major, a Liberty Hill resident of decades who has worked for the district for 27 years.“People want to make sure they know what makes us special and what makes us different in a very positive way."
The district’s identity is important because it unifies the area, most of which lies outside the city limits.
“A lot of people can vote for school board, but not a lot of people can vote for city government,” said Megan Parsons, a 14-year resident of Liberty Hill.
The land race
Liberty Hill district officials are doing their best to prepare for more growth.
District demographers predict the schools will grow from under 8,000 students to about 18,000 in the next 10 years, Superintendent Steve Snell said.
As the city grew from 967 residents in 2010 to 6,801 in 2021, a 603% increase, blooming subdivisions have brought new people and congestion to the rural community, said Parsons, the school board president.
“We still have that small-town, country vibe but it’s not really a small town anymore,” Parsons said. “It really is becoming a suburb of Austin.”
Snell said demographers have estimated that Liberty Hill could become Williamson County's largest city in the next 30 years. “If we’re going to have four or five high schools, I need to get land for those high schools now,” he said, cautioning that properties are only getting more expensive and developers are buying up lots.
Since 2021, the district has acquired or made deals with developers for 450 acres, which should cover the district’s needs for the next five or six years, he said.
Developers sometimes give districts land to build schools in their neighborhoods as those facilities attract families, but if housing demand is hot enough, they might not want to give up any lots, Snell said.
“Land in Liberty Hill is definitely an arms race,” Snell said.
Meeting resistance
Sometimes, though, growth and development meet with resistance.
In November 2022, Dripping Springs school voters rejected a $481 million bond aimed at addressing growth, including building a second high school, with many worried the bond's cost was too high.
Homeowners feel the brunt of rising property values across Central Texas, said Laura Raven, chief appraiser for the Hays Central Appraisal District. In the last five years, the average home value in Hays County, where Dripping Springs is located, increased by 94.7%.
“As more residential properties come up and the population increases, there is a need for jobs and places to shop and eat,” Raven said. “So, as growth occurs, your property value rises.”
In December 2022, about a month after the bond failed, a survey of about 450 people gave the Dripping Springs school district a closer look at what happened.The biggest factors for residents were concerns over a possible tax rate increase, the bond's cost and the potential for wasteful spending, despite the bond not requiring a tax rate increase.
Morris-Kuentz said the package would have helped fund the expansion of campuses that are near or at capacity as well as improvements for aging facilities, among other needs.
The high school, built in 1996, is at capacity, and two elementary schools are over capacity. Portable buildings, which can be costly, have been used as temporary classrooms to address the overflow.
“I don’t understand how our community can accept that portables are long-term solutions for our growth,” Purdy said.
Hays district officials have spent the last nearly 20 years building new schools.
In Hays, the district has added two high schools since the mid-2000s, when the area began having Austin transplants move in, said former Hays County Commissioner Mark Jones, who sat on the school board from 2004 to 2010.
Jones said the move to a second high school was the hardest. Hays High School had been the high school for Buda and Kyle students for more than 40 years, and imagining a second high school was difficult for residents.
Moses Leos was a junior at Hays High School at the time and remembers the animosity around the change.
“We were a small community at the time,” Leos said. “And this was a big city problem that a lot of these small communities weren’t ready for.”
But with more students, comes more money and more opportunities to hire specialized teachers.
The Liberty Hill district, for example, has added career and technical programs, Parsons said.
In Lake Travis, growth has brought a renewed focus on extracurriculars other than football, like orchestra or performing arts, Willis said.With a larger community, students have more in- and out-of-school activities to choose from, he said.
“Kids used to come here and it was all in football all the time,” Willis said. “Now, it was a little bit relaxed.”
What Liberty Hill and Lake Travis residents want to hang on to is the core values of their communities.
“The district has a very strong culture of high expectations,” Norton said. “That’s what brought them to the district."
In Liberty Hill, where family and community are key, a second high school adds uncertainty and a new dynamic.
“When you have a one high school town, everybody can rally around that,” Snell said. “We can all be Panthers.”
Now, it’s the responsibility of residents to keep up that work, Major said.
“Our job is to enhance it and keep it a strong, productive community,” Major said.
Funding the growth
On Saturday, voters in several of these small school districts are being asked to back growth-related projects.
Dripping Springs officials are trying again with a bond proposal, but this time at a fraction of the cost — $223.7 million.
The Hays school district has proposed a $367.8 million bond package, the largest in the district's history.
If approved, some of the money will pay for a 17th elementary school and design for a fourth high school.
Hutto and Leander also have growth-related bond packages on the ballot Saturday.
Jones said that just as he has watched Hays County grow into a roaring suburb, many of these small communities will see the same.Purdy agreed, saying she believes many families move out to the area for the same reasons — good schools, small communities and getting away from Austin.
“If we all work together on this, we can find a way to have it all — address growth and preserve our identity of a small town,” Purdy said.
