School district begins designing eighth high school

A preliminary design for Frisco Independent School District's eighth high school was shown at a regular board of trustees meeting Monday, where trustees were given the opportunity to provide input on the design.

The presentation primarily related to the general layout and exterior design of the school, which will be located between Stonebrook Parkway, Timber Ridge Drive and 4th Army Memorial Road. If design and construction go according to schedule, the school will likely open in August 2015 and have an initial maximum capacity of 2,100 students.

Officials from SHW Group, the firm contracted to design the school, showed board members examples of school designs they've looked at as inspiration, including Dallas High School, Fort Worth's Arlington Heights High School and buildings at area colleges.

Trey Laird, international practice director at SHW Group, said the examples were just being given so the firm would have some direction in its design.

"We're going to show you some images of some schools in the area. Some of them are historic schools and some are schools we think are good for developing a dialogue about what [the school] can possibly look like," he said. "We want to know anything about what you like that you see -- from a detail level or an overall level -- just to give us some idea where to go."

Of the examples given, trustees couldn't come to a consensus for a design, but they did give a variety of opinions on topics ranging from windows to the style of design.

One area they did agree on, however, was not using an art deco style.

"Nope -- we can skip this one," said Renée Ehmke, school board president, jokingly upon seeing a picture of the now-abandoned Dallas High School.

While the exterior design of the school is far from complete, much of the general layout has been planned. Similar to current Frisco high schools, the school will keep a two-story design, which Laird said was done for a variety of reasons.

"All of your buildings are two stories, and there's some programming reasons as to why we stack them to two stories," he said. "There's also some issues in the [building] code going to three stories that are not so advantageous for the school district, and security is more difficult."

The layout of the athletic facilities surrounding the school -- including a field house and sports fields -- has also been formulated, as has the school's parking lot.

Konrad Judd, a principal and lead designer at SHW Group, said the school's layout will allow it to maximize traffic flow.

"We have access to all three roads [Stonebrook, Timber Ridge and 4th Army Memorial], but the primary entrance will be Stonebrook Parkway," he said. "As we begin to lay the project out, our major entrances would be from the north -- at Stonebrook -- and our secondary entrances would approach from either side. This building is available for access from all three [roads] for parking."

Frisco ISD officials have previously said that as few as eight high schools could be the district's limit, although rapid growth will likely dictate otherwise.

Last year, a study released by the Center for Government Research named Frisco ISD the fastest-growing school district in the nation from 2005 to 2010. The study found Frisco ISD maintained a 110 percent growth rate during that period, while the school district with the next fastest growth had just a 53 percent growth rate.

Typically, Frisco ISD sees a yearly enrollment increase of 3,000 students. The district's next high school, Independence, is scheduled to open next year. Independence will be the school district's first new high school since Lone Star High School was formally opened in 2010.

Richard Wilkinson, deputy superintendent for business and operations at Frisco ISD, said the district now expects to eventually have nine or 10 schools, depending on development in the city.

"We're looking at nine for sure, and when the other stuff develops -- like Brinkmann Ranch and Brookfield -- I think we may be looking at 10 high schools," he said. "We will really be cautious about getting too far along with a 10th high school, but we can see nine on the horizon."

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