Hutto ISD has drawn a new line down the middle of town, and it runs right along Hwy. 79. Starting with the 2027-28 school year, that highway will determine which high school students attend: those south of it will stay at Hutto High School, while those to the north will be zoned for the brand-new Creekside High School.
The boundary decision, confirmed by district officials and detailed by Community Impact, comes as Hutto ISD converts its Ninth Grade Center into a full comprehensive high school to keep pace with the district's growing student population. Creekside High School is expected to open in August 2027, initially welcoming only ninth- and 10th-grade students, while rising juniors and seniors will remain at Hutto High School rather than switching campuses mid-career.
Why Older Students Are Staying Put
District surveys primarily favored keeping juniors and seniors at their current campus, according to the same report. Hutto ISD's Dustin Barton said the decision allows those students to preserve academic continuity, manage operating costs and complete multiyear programs, including career and technical education courses, rather than uprooting them for their final one or two years of high school.
There's also a competitive stake in the decision. Remaining at Hutto High School keeps upperclassmen eligible for University Interscholastic League sports and academic competition, Barton said, since Creekside High School will not be UIL eligible until 2028 — a full year after it opens its doors. Juniors and seniors who stay at Hutto High School will also receive bus service to and from campus, per the district's plan.
Sibling Transfers and Unanswered Questions on Busing
The boundary plan does build in some flexibility for younger students. Students zoned for Creekside High School may transfer to Hutto High School if a sibling is already attending the established campus, the district confirmed. However, Hutto ISD is still determining whether it will provide bus service to younger students who use that internal transfer process to maintain UIL eligibility at Hutto High School, leaving that logistical detail unresolved for now.
Middle School Zones Shift Too
The high school changes weren't the only boundary news to come out of the board's action. Trustees also approved adjusted attendance zones for Gus Almquist and Hutto middle schools, a move aimed at easing overcrowding at Gus Almquist Middle School while planning ahead for continued growth. As part of that shift, a portion of Gus Almquist's existing attendance zone will be transferred over to Hutto Middle School.
A District Still Racing to Keep Up With Growth
The new boundaries land against a backdrop of rapid, if recently slowing, enrollment growth. Hutto ISD's enrollment climbed by 414 students heading into the 2025-26 school year, reaching a projected 11,103 students, according to the district's Fall 2025 Demographic Report. The same report projects enrollment reaching nearly 13,200 students by 2030-31 and surpassing 15,000 by 2035-36 as housing development in the area continues.
Yet the pace of that growth has cooled noticeably in the short term. The district added only about 80 new students this academic cycle, a sharp drop from the 400 to 500 new students Hutto ISD had been enrolling in recent years, the Taylor Press reported. A consultant cited in that report expects the district to grow by an average of 1.5% annually over the next five years, and now estimates Hutto ISD won't hit the 12,000-student mark until 2032, later than the 2029 timeline once anticipated. That contrasts with an earlier projection from the Austin American-Statesman, which reported in 2023 that Hutto ISD expected enrollment to reach 17,700 students by 2032 — a figure far above the Taylor Press's more recent, more conservative outlook.
The Price Tag Behind Creekside
Creekside's physical footprint reflects the district's long-term ambitions even amid the slowdown. The redesigned campus will accommodate 2,400 students, an increase of 1,400 over the former Ninth Grade Center's original capacity, the Taylor Press reported separately. The project has already committed $172 million of the $180 million allocated from bond funds to get the new high school built in time for its planned 2027-28 opening.
Hutto isn't the only fast-growing district redrawing its map to keep up with new campuses. In Iowa, the Waterloo school district has been working through major attendance-boundary and feeder-pattern changes ahead of the planned 2028 opening of United High School, according to KCRG — a reminder that the logistics of splitting a growing student body across two high schools are a challenge playing out well beyond Central Texas.
