Hughson is growing and school officials there are confident they can handle the influx of families that continues to occur.

KB Homes has been quickly building the 299 homes within the Parkwood development and when all is said and done, an estimated 900 to 1,000 new residents will have become part of Hughson’s population.

Considered a bedroom community, Hughson has doubled in population since 2000 and today has 8,107 residents.

The new homes are being constructed south of Hatch Road and west of Santa Fe Avenue within earshot of trains. The development prompted the building of a new access road off of Hatch Road over the Turlock Irrigation District’s Ceres Main Canal.

Brenda Smith, superintendent of the Hughson Unified School District, said as of October 2025, 38 news students came in from Parkwood which at the time was about half constructed. Fourteen of the 38 were in preschool through third grade; nine at Fox Road Elementary School; five students in the sixth through eighth grades at Ross Middle School; and 10 students at Hughson High School.

“We haven’t really had a huge impact yet from Parkwood,” said Smith, who said enrollment in Hughson schools is at 2,298 students.

Last year the district had 2,190 students and the year before that it was 2,157.

Since 2018 when Smith was hired at Hughson, enrollment was 2,054 – about 250 less than now.

The largest enrollment jump was in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten. She expects the numbers to climb higher next school year.

“Often people when they move into a home they – if they lived close by – won’t pull their kids in the middle of the year. They’ll wait until a new school year.”

Smith said KB Homes is about two-thirds complete. Initially Hughson Unified expected to see an eventual additional 207 students.

Kaufman & Broad bought the subdivision map for development from the original proponents who saw the project through the approval stage. Hughson has the classroom space because it did not downsize staff after COVID, preferring to offer smaller class sizes.

However, the district is adding seven more classrooms at Hughson High School because voters passed Measure B, a $46 million bond measure in November 2024.

The classrooms are being created from the remodeling of a building.

Bond proceeds are also paying for the remodeling of existing Hughson High classrooms. The 40-classroom wing has already been refurbished to turn three classrooms into five. The 10-wing in front

of Hughson High has been modernized with new flooring, windows and air conditioning units.

“All the walls were taken out and we had some small rooms and some large rooms so now all of the classrooms will be a standard classroom size.”

This summer the 30 wing will be modernized and four new classrooms and student restrooms are being constructed for a science wing. A new agriculture department is also receiving a new classroom.

The bond proceeds also allowed the installation of new seating, carpeting and paint at the campus’ Ella Webb Theater.

After football season is over in the winter, Hughson plans to upgrade its athletic stadium to make it ADA compliant.

Bond proceeds will also be put to use moving the maintenance and transportation department at the Hughson Elementary School campus to the site of the current school farm across from the high school.

Instead of advancing on plans to move the district office – currently on the Ross Middle School campus – to the elementary school site on Whitmore Avenue, Smith said priorities have switched to perhaps upgrade the Hughson High cafeteria.

“I have a hard time putting money into a district office that could be used to help improve where our students are,” said Smith. “We’re still looking at different options on that. That’s one project that I would say is still up in the air.”

The city’s wastewater treatment plant on Leedom Road has more than enough capacity for additional growth and the developer is paying fees to offset the impacts to the school system and fire department.

The lots will range in size from 5,005 to 13,280 square feet. The subdivision also includes 6.14 acres of park/storm retention basin.

The company’s website indicates that homes start at $514,990 plus the costs of solar panels mandated by the state of California and home site premiums that may apply. KB is offering five floor plans:

• The smallest is a 3-4 bedrooms, two and a half to three bath home of 1,985 square feet at $514,990.
• The three- to four-bedroom, 2 bath at 2,143 square feet starts at $533,990.
• The three- to four-bedroom with two baths totaling 2,191 square feet starts at $531,990.
• The four- to six-bedroom, two-and-half to four bath home of 2,532 square feet starts at $558,990;
• A 2,768-square-foot model of four to six bedrooms and up to three and a half baths has no price available on the KB Homes website.

Parkwood is the third building project for KB Homes in recent years. The Hughson City Council approved 69 homes in 2006 for Euclid South Development, later renamed Fieldstone subdivision.

Building was abruptly interrupted by the 2008 mortgage crash but rejuvenated with the final map approval on March 9, 2020.

The other residential development, named Euclid North, was approved in 2007 and amended in 2017.