The Princeton Independent School District (PISD) is prepared to use portable classrooms if needed to keep up with unprecedented growth, Superintendent Donald McIntyre said.

Total district enrollment was 9,859 last week, up 1,264 from a year earlier, McIntyre told the Monday, Sept. 16, meeting of the PISD Board of Trustees.

“We are already 330 kids over the number that we were projected,” the superintendent said. “Last year, we didn’t cross that projection number till somewhere about February.”

Most of the growth was at the elementary level, with 692 more pupils than last year, he said.

McIntyre said the district was monitoring the situation, saying, “They’re coming in a little faster than what we expected.”

Trustee Julia Schmoker asked the superintendent whether portable buildings would be required in the future.

“Probably,” McIntyre replied. “We don’t want to use portables the long-term plan … but those are in our short-term plan to get through some things.”

The superintendent added that the district may need to bring new elementary schools online a year or two earlier than originally scheduled.

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