While developers are required to provide the land for public schools and sometimes provide an "impact fee" of about $750 to $1,500 per unit, they do not pay for schools. The impact fee covers growth-related expenses (such as mobile classrooms to expand school capacity or adding school zones/crosswalks); however, these fees do not come close to covering the cost of schools. As an example, Sterling Ranch has paid about $3 million in impact fees and a new school costs about $60 million. Every neighborhood school in Douglas County was built as a result of a bond initiative.

We are temporarily supporting growth with overflow schools, mobile classrooms, and long bus rides (especially difficult for our youngest learners). Without the ability to place schools in our school voids, we will eventually have to reboundary existing neighborhoods away from their closest school in order to accommodate the overflow from communities with no schools.