BLINN COLLEGE SERVICE TERRITORY NOW COVERS PART OF HARRIS CO.
Blinn College’s service territory has increased to include a portion of Harris County.
Blinn's newly approved addition of a portion of
Harris County, east of Waller.
(courtesy Texas Association of Community Colleges)
Earlier this month, Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1114, immediately expanding the College’s service area into the part of Waller ISD that is located in Harris County.
Blinn Executive Vice Chancellor Leighton Schubert says the College is now able to begin offering dual credit courses in Waller ISD, with plans to provide night and weekend community courses out of a school district facility. The College’s ultimate, long-term goal is to purchase property in the new territory and establish a campus.
Schubert says upon the state’s creation of community college service areas in 1995, some pockets were not assigned a community college, like this area in west Harris County that splits the city of Waller and its school district.
The increased service area stretches along Highway 290 from the Buc-ee’s in Waller to the Grand Parkway (Highway 99).
Schubert says while the new territory is not large geographically, it is growing faster than anywhere else currently in the College’s service area. He adds that Harris County is “by far” the top feeder county for Blinn students, and being assigned this space is the first step in expanding the College’s presence in the region.
Despite Harris County being one of, if not the largest, source of students at Blinn’s Brenham’s Campus, Schubert says the College does not foresee a new campus in that area having a large impact on Brenham’s enrollment. He attributes this to the Brenham location being able to offer a more traditional college experience, one that commuter campuses – like the one proposed in Waller – are not designed for.
HB 1114 was co-authored in the House by Representatives Kyle Kacal and Stan Kitzman and sponsored in the Senate by Lois Kolkhorst. It was unanimously approved in both chambers.
Harris County is the 14th county that Blinn serves all or part of. The newly added territory does not change the College’s taxing district, which remains exclusively Washington County.