School in Eagle Ford Shale swells with newcomers

[TexasTowelie]

TILDEN — Every weekday morning, the rumble of buses dropping off students at McMullen County's only public school gets drowned out by the heavy trucks whizzing by on Texas 16.

Tilden is a small town, and with 235 students in pre-K through 12th grades, the school is small, too — even after enrollment jumped 42 percent in a year and a half.

Outside, students can see the reason: drilling rigs in the distance. At recess, they run, slide and swing at a new playground built with corporate donations, a list brimming with names including Petrohawk Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Rush Truck Centers.

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The pursuit of oil and gas in the Eagle Ford Shale has picked up the pace in dozens of formerly quiet rural communities in a wide arc around San Antonio. But nowhere is the impact on schools greater than here, in one of the least-populated school districts in its path.


Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/School-swells-with-newcomers-3380218.php#ixzz1oAZlvh2D

[font color=green]I grew up in the adjacent county to the east of McMullen county and Tilden was sometimes the butt of some jokes due to how small it was. Earlier this year, the school district added six-man football to its programs and is also looking at expanding its music programs.[/font]

[sonias]

1. What will the future hold after the boom?

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But there's a housing crunch in Tilden, too. A key reason more energy industry workers are enrolling their children here is proudly displayed on the school's marquee: “EXEMPLARY SCHOOL DISTRICT,” the Texas Education Agency's highest rating.

Behind the school, McMullen ISD has built nine “teacheridges” over the years, employee cottages with as many as three bedrooms, including two added since 2010. It leases some to students' families, and John Ray, 51, a pipeline inspector for Hatch Mott MacDonald, is one of the fortunate few.

After five months of house hunting, he was able to move his wife and third-grade daughter from West Monroe, La., into a teacheridge and thinks $600 a month is a good deal.

“It was just hard to find a place, but I didn't want to live in a trailer for the next couple of years,” Ray said. “If there was more housing here it would probably be filled up as fast as they could build (it). But when this little boom is over, it'll be a ghost town here.”

Tilden needs to be careful they don't end up with a whole lot of debt they can't pay once the boom is done with. It's great if they can get the industry to pay for the infrastructure up front, but when towns and communities take out long bonds to expand their school systems etc - they're the ones left to pay the bills down the road.

I wish them the best.