The United Independent School District in Laredo, Texas, has broken ground on a ninth-grade campus for United South High School.

The district says the two-story, 200,000-square-foot facility is being built about two blocks south of the main campus. It will accommodate about 1,200 students and is expected to be completed in 2016.

The ninth-grade center will have 30 classrooms, six science lecture labs with three shared prep rooms, two special education classrooms, six business labs, and an Introduction to Career Technology Education Magnet Lab. The Fine Arts Program will have two art labs and a dance studio, and athletic programs and physical education classes will share competition and practice gyms with access to outdoor sport fields.

United South's ninth-grade campus is one of four the district is building as a result of a $408 million bond referendum approved by voters in 2013.