Clear Creek ISD could face more than $124 million in facility upgrades over the next five years, according to a year-long study presented to the school board Monday, Sept. 14.

The district partnered with Houston-based PBK Architects to assess every CCISD campus, a process authorized in June 2025 and completed in August. CCISD Superintendent Karen Engle outlined the findings at the board workshop, Community Impact reported.

Alex Aragon, CCISD's director of facility services, walked trustees through the data. The analysis divided each campus into sections and individual assets, then graded the condition, characteristics and lifecycle of items such as heat pumps, cooling towers and chillers. Across just seven mechanical categories, the study cataloged more than 3,000 individual assets. Those included 962 air handling units, 928 heat pumps, 667 variable frequency drives, 474 fan coil units, 85 chillers, 37 cooling towers and 271 pumps.

The findings were uploaded to Origin, a data analysis platform the district authorized in October 2025. The software generates five- and ten-year cost forecasts based on the condition data. Aragon recommended the district review the Origin dashboard annually, tag projects by priority and update the model as upgrades are completed.

"This is going to be a continuous, living organism. It has to be," Aragon said at the workshop.

The scope is broad. Trustee Rebecca Lilley thanked staff who worked on the assessment and said students cannot learn unless they are safe and comfortable.

The $124 million projection lands as CCISD navigates significant budget pressure. The board approved a proposed $432 million budget for fiscal year 2026-27 that carries a $22.8 million shortfall, Community Impact reported. A $16 million drop in state and local funding, tied to the loss of roughly 1,000 students, drove the gap. To cover it, the district plans to draw on its $39 million capital contingency fund. CCISD is also projecting an $18.4 million shortfall for the following year and has listed a phased, data-driven facility consolidation plan among its strategic budget recommendations, according to Community Impact.

The push toward data-driven facility planning is not new for CCISD. In December 2025, the district began using Brightly, a separate maintenance software system, to manage infrastructure repairs. Board member Arturo Sanchez said at the time that the tool would "remove some of the flexibility we've exercised to kick the can down the road."

The source data does not break down which individual campuses, including Clear Lake High School, Clear Brook High School or their feeder schools, face the largest share of the projected costs. No date for a follow-up board vote on prioritized repair projects has been announced. The board is next scheduled to meet Sept. 28 to formally adopt the district's tax rate.