Van Alstyne ISD trustees will consider contracts Thursday to design and build the district's fourth elementary school, and a resolution acknowledging that the district cannot keep an armed officer on every campus at all times, as state law requires.
The board's regular meeting is at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, according to the agenda posted on the district's BoardBook page.
Elementary No. 4
Two action items cover the new school. One asks trustees to accept a proposal from WRA for design services for a new elementary school. The other asks them to accept a proposal from Gallagher Construction for "elementary school #4." The posted agenda does not include either proposal or list a dollar amount.
Trustees are also scheduled to meet in closed session under the Open Meetings Act exception for deliberating the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property, along with a session for legal advice.
The district has three elementary campuses now. An enrollment report in the board packet, dated Oct. 9, counts 3,024 students: 365 at Partin Elementary, 479 at Sanford Elementary and 356 at Williams Elementary, with 456 at Van Alstyne Middle School, 499 at the junior high and 858 at the high school. The same report shows 2,895 students in September 2025.
The armed-officer exception
State law requires school boards to have at least one armed security officer present at each campus during regular school hours, and allows a "good cause exception" when a district cannot comply because of funding or a shortage of qualified people.
The draft resolution in the packet says Van Alstyne ISD falls short because of funding. It says the board committed in 2022 to building a district police department with the goal of an officer per campus, and that the department has grown to seven officers, enough to assign at least one permanently to each of the six instructional campuses.
But officers also attend training, appear in court, answer calls off campus and take leave during the school day, the resolution says, and the district cannot hire more officers now because of a lack of added state money for school safety combined with rapid growth and the need for more teachers and other staff.
