Fifth- and sixth-grade students in Denison ISD started the 2026-2027 school year Thursday inside the new B. McDaniel Intermediate School, a campus the district built under the bond program voters approved in 2023.
Denison ISD's published academic calendar sets Aug. 13, 2026 as the first day of classes, and that date fell on a Thursday. The school's own website lists B. McDaniel Intermediate at 1000 Texoma Drive as the district campus for fifth and sixth grades.
On its bond update page, the district groups the new B. McDaniel building with BOND23 construction work and gives fall 2026 as the scheduled opening.
Trustees marked the finished building before students arrived. Minutes from the July 21, 2026 board meeting record trustees and the superintendent discussing a recent ribbon cutting at the new school ahead of the first day of classes.
The primary construction records located for this report do not support an $82 million cost for the facility. A guaranteed maximum price summary presented to trustees on Sept. 17, 2024 puts the grand total for B. McDaniel at $75,069,135. A recommendation letter from Corgan in the same board record gives a guaranteed maximum price of $74,737,372. Both figures describe the contracted construction price for the campus.
The claimed cost and the price in the board record
$82 million
The circulating cost figure for B. McDaniel. No primary construction record located for this report supports it.
$75,069,135
Grand total for B. McDaniel in the guaranteed maximum price summary presented to trustees. A Corgan letter in the same record gives $74,737,372.
Source: Denison ISD BoardBook, Sept. 17, 2024 guaranteed maximum price summary and Corgan recommendation letter
The money traces to an election three years ago. Denison ISD voters passed Proposition A on May 6, 2023 by a count of 1,413 to 932, according to the canvass record filed with the board. The measure authorized $132 million in bonds for construction, renovation, acquisition and equipment of school facilities, land acquisition included. Its language covers district facilities in general and names no single campus.
Source: Denison ISD canvass record filed with the board, BoardBook
For the 2023 bond work, Denison ISD used Construction Manager at Risk delivery, under which the contractor commits to a price ceiling before the job finishes. In materials prepared for trustees, the district said it had used the same method in its 2011 and 2019 bond programs and recommended it again for BOND23.
Nearby Sherman ISD said it was preparing to open three new schools for the 2025-2026 school year and adopted attendance-zone rules around those openings.
Denison ISD has not published, in the records reviewed for this report, an enrollment count for the new campus or a final accounting of BOND23 spending against the $132 million voters authorized.
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