11/19/2025
Proud Parents, we asked Trustee Josh Westrom if he’d teach us about what goes into prospecting and purchasing land for schools, and our history of buying land here in AISD. Per usual, Josh went all-in. We hope you enjoy the read as much as we did!
Thanks for coming by, Josh!
There’s been a lot of conversation lately about how our District identifies land for future schools. It is understandable that people have questions—picking a school site is complicated. It’s easy to look at one piece of land and point out its shortcomings. What’s much harder to see is the full list of available alternatives (if any) and whether there is a willing seller, how much the other options cost, whether roads and utilities will be available in time, and other important considerations.
Sometimes the challenge isn’t the land itself or finding a willing seller. A site can be completely
workable from an engineering and educational perspective yet still face strong opposition from nearby residents and local elected officials who don’t want a school near them or using the same roads they travel. This adds another layer of complexity even when a site is otherwise a good fit.
Land Evaluation: When evaluating land for a potential school site, consideration must be given to its location, price, size, access, road conditions, utilities (existing and future), shape, and topography. No site checks every box—especially in an area like ours, where many roads are still rural and sewer and water access is limited. Those realities shrink the number of properties we can develop. So every
decision becomes a balancing act: what challenges does a site have, can they be overcome, and does the purchase price reflect those challenges?
When I joined the school board in May 2022, the District owned one piece of land—23 acres donated in Harvest. It was initially thought to be a middle school site, but it was a small site for a 1,200-student middle school, and at the time we had an urgent need to open a fourth elementary school. Another site we had under contract turned out to be unfeasible because roads and utilities wouldn’t be available in time to open a new campus. With less than 18 months to go, the Harvest tract—with its existing roads and utilities—was the only viable option. That campus is now Jane Ruestman Elementary.
Since 2022, the District has acquired 228 acres in three transactions:
1. FM 407 – Argyle (2023): The District purchased 50 acres from a willing seller on a major FM road with utilities available. We negotiated access to two secondary roads, which the Town later restricted, but we continue exploring alternatives together.
2. Furst Ranch – Flower Mound (2024): The District purchased 35 acres and received an additional 15 acres as a donation. The tract fronts US 377, has utilities, and is part of a master-planned community where future roads are expected to serve the site.
3. Robson Ranch Road – Northlake (2025): The District purchased 128 acres on a four-lane road from a willing seller adjacent to two large residential communities—The Ridge and Harvest—that will provide secondary access points and supporting infrastructure.
Zoning: Some people have asked whether low-density residential zoning makes a site wrong for a school. In Texas, school districts aren’t governed by city zoning, so those labels don’t determine where a school can or can’t be built. Because schools require large tracts of land, it is much more common to find willing sellers of low-density residential property than other land-use types. The FM 407 land, the Furst Ranch site, and the 128 acres on Robson Ranch Road were all zoned low-density residential when acquired. By comparison, higher-density, commercial, or industrial tracts are rarely for sale—or they come with a much higher price tag. And we generally avoid purchasing large commercial tracts because doing so removes much-needed future commercial tax revenue from both the Town and the District.
Roadway Constraints: Another concern I’ve heard is that the District should avoid building schools on major roadways in our District because they are already too congested. Others want us to avoid the more rural roads because they are insufficient to handle school traffic. If we rule out major state or FM roads due to congestion, and we also rule out rural roads because they are not yet built out to support
traffic, we are left with few, if any, roadways suitable for future campuses. The reality is that the District must utilize the roads within its boundaries—there is no other option. Our roads are congested and so are our schools. We have to make the best use of the transportation network that exists today while continuing to work with our municipalities as their roadway plans evolve.
Where we are now: In just a few years, the District has added 228 acres to its land bank—50 acres in active development and 178 acres secured for future schools. We continue working with our municipal partners to understand their long-range plans, even when our plans and timelines don’t always align.
I believe the District has a responsibility to plan ahead and make sure it has land ready when families need more schools. I’m proud of the progress our District has made since 2022, and I’m grateful to our voters who have supported this effort and allowed us to meet the needs of our fast-growing community.
-Josh Westrom
