A new middle school and high school.
30,602 total enrolled students in PISD.
500 new hires.
Thousands of students adding to the growth of Prosper.
The construction of Richland High School is expected to finish in May of 2025 and will start welcoming students in the 2025-26 school year. Dr. Lute Croy, former Assistant Principal at Prosper High School, has been named the head principal at Richland High School. In addition, Jones Middle School welcomed its first students Aug. 13, 2024. Constructed next to Rock Hill, the school has been added to accommodate the number of families moving into the city.
“Jones right now has 1,000 (students),” Croy said. “They will probably be at 1,500, which is what it’s built for, next year.”
Each high school in PISD specializes in a specific CTE department. Prosper High School contains an auto-tech garage, Rock Hill High School consists of JROTC and solar car and Walnut Grove High School has a printing shop and an esports team. Richland High School is expected to specialize in two different areas – cosmetology and electrical engineering.
“It will be the first time they are offering the cosmetology class in the district,” Croy said. “We will have a huge 6,000 square foot space for electrical engineering. We’ve also talked about potentially having cyber security on the Richland campus.”
Many school districts across the DFW area have experienced a shortage of teachers, and with the opening of two new schools and many more on the way, Croy said staffing is a problem to be considered. He, however, states that PISD has done an organized job of spreading out teachers and admin to the necessary areas. The student body at Richland will mainly consist of students from Rushing Middle School and Prosper High School.
“A certain percentage of my staff will come from Prosper High School,” Croy said. “There’s a process where people can request to transfer, and I’m sure there will be people from other schools that will be interested in transferring as well.”
Croy said that he will also likely hire teachers from outside the district.
“Staffing will definitely be interesting,” Croy said. “It’s hard to find teachers in this climate, but we are fortunate that Richland is brand new. We have a bunch of teachers reaching out from outside the district and they’re really high quality staff.”
Richland High School plans to introduce only seniors for the first year, and then plans to add a new grade level each subsequent year. One concern, Croy said, is offering all levels of classes to a small cohort of seniors.
“Higher level classes such as AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C and so on require quality teachers,” Croy said. “Offering those to a class of 100-150 seniors is where staffing becomes challenging because we don’t want to overwork those teachers, but we still want to provide those students with what they expect from PISD.”
Croy expects there to be similarities between the policies at Prosper High and Richland High.
“It will be a pretty similar experience in terms of advisory and tutoring periods,” Croy said. “But I think the thing that will set us apart is the focus on academics. I want us to be the highest achieving academic campus, and not just in Prosper.”
One of the major areas of interest for staff and admin will be on life after high school for the students.
“The focus is what are we doing to make sure they are champions in life,” Croy said, “and I believe that academics – math, science and English – is the basis of making sure students live life like champions.”
The Prosper School District still expects further growth, with four new schools under construction and planning to open in August of 2025.
“I know our community will be really excited for Richland,” Croy said. “It’s going to be a world-class school, a world-class staff and a world-class education. I think it will be the nicest high school in America. Until the next one.”
