New Waco High School: Inside the Build for 2,100 Students

Aug 1, 2025
New Waco High School: Inside the Build for 2,100 Students

The new Waco High School replaces the original 1950s building, formerly known as Richfield High School, with a modern campus designed for more than 2,100 students. It is one of the largest facility investments Waco ISD has made in decades, and for the RO team, it is a project that will shape how we work across Central Texas for years to come.

A Campus Built Around How Students Learn Today

The new campus is organized around how students actually move through their day. Core academic wings sit alongside spaces built for performance, athletics, and hands-on learning.

The fine arts center anchors one side of the building with a 600-seat auditorium, a full stage, and an orchestra pit.

waco high school auditorium

Athletics include a 1,700-seat competition gym and a 250-seat practice gym.

The Career and Technical Education wing is where the program really opens up:

  • An eight-bay auto-tech shop
  • A culinary arts kitchen
  • Business and marketing labs
  • Graphic design studios
  • Technology-focused classrooms

Each space was shaped by input from WHS instructors so the rooms match how the curriculum is actually taught.

Coordinating a New Build Around a Live Campus

The bigger challenge was not the building itself. It was building it while school stayed in session next door.

Waco ISD, WHS staff and students, OCR, and the RO team planned the work in phases that kept the existing campus fully operational throughout construction. Pedestrian routes, bus traffic, deliveries, and daily school operations all had to be sequenced around active work zones. Early engagement set the tone, and steady communication kept it on rails.

Upgrading the Utility Backbone

The site work required close coordination with the City of Waco, whose Building Waco program had utility improvements underway in the same corridor. RO and our civil partners installed new domestic and fire water service, sanitary sewer, and storm drainage, and tied into the city’s active water and wastewater network without interrupting service to the school or the surrounding neighborhood.

Surveys, phasing, and joint planning sessions with the City made those tie-ins possible. Every part of the system meets current standards for fire flow, capacity, and reliability for a modern high school campus, with room built in for future site improvements.

What It Means for Waco

The new Waco High School gives students a modern place to learn, perform, compete, and train for what comes next. For Waco ISD, it is a long-term investment in the future of the district and the community around it.

Generations of WISD alumni, community members, WISD employees and faculty signed the final beam to be placed during the topping out in 2023.

Schools shape what a community looks like decades from now. Being part of that work in Waco, alongside a district investing this seriously in its students, is the kind of project we will carry with us for a long time.

See the final project here: https://r-o.com/projects/waco-high-school/