Hobbs will soon have a new middle school after its school board recently approved a plan to address the city’s growing population.

The board plans to ask the public to approve a bond to build the school at an estimated cost of $60 million.

“At that time, we had two middle schools that were over 1,000 students attending every day for campuses that were built for 700 to 750,” Superintendent Gene Strickland told KRQE.

The superintendent said the school district has struggled to keep up with the population boom – seeing 1,500 more students over the last seven years.

The district now consists of 10,000 students, and with two schools already packed and a third getting close to capacity, a new middle school is much needed.

“Our projection shows that we’ll continue to grow as a community and so we’re not tasked with maintaining our existing facilities, but we’re also tasked with additional square footage – which is a great problem to have, honestly,” Strickland said.

A new, bigger elementary school was recently built to replace an older small school. The district also remodeled and expanded the high school.

This will be the first big addition to classroom space at the middle school level. The current middle schools are 60 to 87 years old.

The board plans to ask the public to approve a bond to build the school at an estimated cost of $60 million.