Magnolia ISD is growing!
While some public school districts across the state are experiencing significant enrollment decline, that is not the case here in Magnolia ISD.
New students continue to enroll in Magnolia ISD each year.
For the 2025-26 school year, MISD is projected to grow 3.2% or 479 students districtwide. As of January 6, 2026, the district has exceeded projections and grown 670 students. Demographic projections show that MISD will continue to grow about 4% each year thereafter.
District Enrollment Projections
Overcrowded High Schools
Demographic projections reveal that despite having a strong facility plan in place, the district will experience overcrowding at the district’s two high schools within the next few years. Because it takes about four years from the planning phase to voter approval and completed construction of a new high school, the cost of construction continues to rise and MISD does not receive facility funding from the state, a committee will begin meeting to discuss options for managing student growth.
Strong Housing Market
Magnolia ISD has approximately 1,400 homes in active inventory, roughly 4,500 lots available to build on, and roughly 30,870 planned in the future.
Local growth means more money for schools, right?
Not necessarily.
People see new homes being built and property values grow and believe that public schools benefit from that growth. Unfortunately, property value growth does not benefit Magnolia ISD’s operating budget. In fact, under the current Texas school finance formulas, when property values increase, state funding actually decreases.
New students do generate some additional state funding but only based on good attendance.
The good news is property value growth does positively impact the interest and sinking or debt service side of the budget. Property value growth is one of the primary reasons we have not had to increase our debt service tax rate in the past two bonds elections (2015 and 2022), nor do we anticipate having to increase the tax rate for any bond elections in the near future.
The Costs of Portable Classrooms
Each portable classroom costs MISD taxpayers approximately $110,000. This expenditure is equivalent to the cost of 36 SmartBoards that could be purchased for all HS math classrooms. Portable classrooms are temporary and without voter-approved bond funding, MISD would have to pay for portables out of the operating budget which is typically earmarked for daily expenses like salaries, classroom supplies, utilities, insurance and student programs.
Each portable classroom costs MISD taxpayers approximately $110,000.
$110,000
One portable classroom could fund one of these needs:
5 portables = 1% teacher pay raise
Delivery Time & Set-Up
It takes an average of 6 weeks for delivery of a portable classroom. Additionally, the district must comply with state standards, which include adding safety and security to these temporary buildings, including phones, internet access, and cabling.
FAQ
School district tax rates are made up of two parts: Maintenance & Operations or M&O and Interest & Sinking or I&S. The M&O tax rate is added to the I&S tax rate to create a district’s overall school tax rate. This video explains how the two buckets work.
The M&O is similar to a household budget and covers expenses such as salaries, supplies, utilities, and other daily operating costs. The M&O is 86% payroll and 14% daily operation costs. The I&S can only be used to pay down debt for school improvements and construction, and to pay interest incurred when voters approve a school bond election.
School districts have two budgets–the Maintenance and Operations (M&O) and the Interest and Sinking (I&S), as explained above. The I&S portion, or the debt part of the budget, is similar to a mortgage. For example, a family is ready to purchase a home. They typically have to visit a bank to be approved for a mortgage and agree to pay the principal and interest back over 15 or 30 years. For school districts, the Operations Budget cannot sufficiently fund new facilities, so districts must issue bonds. The difference is that districts must obtain voter approval to issue bonds. In lieu of bonds, districts do not have a means to pay for new buildings.
A bond rejected by the voters isn’t just about a building issue; it’s a ‘people’ budget issue. Every dollar the district spends from the operations budget to fix a roof is a dollar that cannot be used to fund teacher pay raises needed to remain competitive and recruit the best educators, new hires, and classroom instructional support.
School district funding is based on student enrollment and attendance, which the state funds at $6,215 per student.
State law requires this statement to be on the bond proposition. For the November 2025 Bond, the district tax rate was not changing, which confused voters. While the statement can be misleading, the district is asking voters for approval to take on additional debt at the current tax rate.
This would require the district to purchase two additional land sites, as there is no space at each of the current high schools to build a separate 9th-grade campus. Based on a capacity of 2,500 at each high school, it would require the construction of additional core spaces, such as cafeterias, athletic facilities, band halls, and choir halls.
The 80 acres at Carraway Lane were sold as the property was not large enough to build a new high school. The amount of land needed to build a high school is 100 acres.
In Montgomery County, you can vote at any location during early voting. On election day, you must vote at your assigned polling place. This can be found on the Montgomery County Elections website under “Your Registration Status.”