Bee Cave Elementary vs Rough Hollow Elementary: What Parents Should Know

If you’re trying to decide between Bee Cave Elementary and Rough Hollow Elementary, you’re already in a pretty good spot. Both are Lake Travis ISD campuses. Both pull strong numbers. And both sit in neighborhoods where your kid is going to have a solid experience from kindergarten through fifth grade.

But they’re not the same school. Not even close, actually.

One has been around long enough to have deep roots in the community. The other opened its doors in 2020 and is still building its identity. One sits in the heart of established Bee Cave. The other serves the luxury lakefront neighborhoods south of Lakeway. So which one makes more sense for your family?

I’ve been selling homes in this area for over 15 years, and school choice drives about half the conversations I have with relocating families. Through my involvement with LTISD’s SEPAC, I’ve seen both campuses up close. Here’s what you actually need to know.

Bee Cave Elementary vs Rough Hollow Elementary: Side-by-Side

Before we get into the details, here’s a quick comparison to orient you.

Numbers are useful, but they only tell you so much. Let’s talk about what each campus actually feels like.

Bee Cave Elementary: The Established Campus

Bee Cave Elementary is the largest elementary campus in Lake Travis ISD, and it operates like a school that knows exactly what it is. With 826 students, you might expect it to feel impersonal. It doesn’t. And a lot of that comes down to leadership and staff retention.

Principal Kimberly Kellner runs a tight ship. The teaching staff averages 11 years of classroom experience, and here’s the number that matters more: they’ve been at Bee Cave Elementary for an average of 8 years. That kind of retention is unusual. It means your kid’s third grade teacher probably taught your neighbor’s kid three years ago. The institutional knowledge runs deep.

You’ll notice that stability the first time you walk in for a parent event. Teachers know families by name. The front office staff remembers your kid. For a school that size, that’s not nothing.

The PTA at Bee Cave Elementary is legitimately active. I don’t mean they send home fundraiser flyers. I mean they run programs, coordinate volunteers, and show up in ways that directly affect the classroom experience. If you’re a parent who wants to be involved, you’ll find an easy on-ramp here. If you’d rather just drop off and pick up, nobody’s going to guilt you about it either.

The campus sits along the Hamilton Pool Road corridor in the heart of Bee Cave. So you’re close to everything. The Hill Country Galleria is right there. Grocery runs happen on the way home from pickup. It’s practical in a way that matters when you’re doing the school commute 180 days a year.

Bee Cave Elementary feeds into Bee Cave Middle School and then Lake Travis High School, which keeps the social continuity intact. Your kid builds friendships in kindergarten that carry through graduation. That’s worth more than most parents realize until they’re living it.

Rough Hollow Elementary: The New Campus With Momentum

Rough Hollow Elementary is a different animal. It opened in 2020, which means it’s still in that phase where traditions are being invented rather than inherited. Some parents see that as a drawback. I’d argue it’s actually an advantage if you know what to look for.

Principal Angela Page came to Rough Hollow with nearly 25 years of education experience, including time in Round Rock ISD. That matters because she didn’t walk into a brand-new campus without a playbook. She brought tested systems from one of the most respected districts in Central Texas and adapted them for a school that was literally building its culture from scratch.

And the culture she’s building is intentional. Rough Hollow Elementary has student leadership initiatives woven into the campus DNA. Your kid isn’t just attending school here. They’re expected to contribute to it. That might sound like education jargon, but when you see a fourth grader running a morning assembly with genuine confidence, you realize it’s working.

The facilities are, predictably, excellent. When you build a school in 2020, everything is current. But the standout is the STEM maker space. This isn’t a computer lab with some aging desktops. It’s a purpose-built space where kids do hands-on engineering, coding, and design thinking. If your child gravitates toward building things and figuring out how stuff works, this campus was designed with them in mind.

With 751 students, Rough Hollow Elementary runs slightly smaller than Bee Cave Elementary. You feel that difference in the hallways. The campus has a tighter community feel, partly because of size and partly because the neighborhoods it serves are themselves tight-knit.

The school primarily draws from Rough Hollow and Sweetwater, both master-planned communities with strong HOA programming. So the families feeding into this campus already know each other from neighborhood pools, trails, and events. That existing social infrastructure makes the school community gel faster than you’d expect for a campus that’s only been open a few years.

The Neighborhood Factor: Where You Live Changes Everything

Here’s where Bee Cave Elementary vs Rough Hollow Elementary becomes less about schools and more about lifestyle.

Bee Cave Elementary Neighborhoods

If you’re zoned to Bee Cave Elementary, you’re living in or around Bee Cave proper. This is established Hill Country suburban living. You’ll find a mix of housing from the early 2000s through recent builds, price points that range from the mid $400s into the millions, and a city infrastructure that’s matured over the past two decades.

The Hamilton Pool Road corridor gives you quick access to 71 and the Bee Cave commercial district. Commutes into downtown Austin are manageable. And you’ve got the kind of neighborhood variety where you can find something that fits whether your budget is $500K or $2M.

Rough Hollow Elementary Neighborhoods

Rough Hollow Elementary families are primarily in the Rough Hollow and Sweetwater communities south of Lakeway. This is a different vibe entirely. We’re talking luxury lakefront and lake-access living. Rough Hollow in particular is one of the most amenity-rich master-planned communities in the Austin metro.

You get a yacht club, marina, fitness center, miles of trails, and a social calendar that’s almost aggressive in its programming. Homes here tend to start higher and go significantly higher. If lake life is the goal and you want your kids in a newer school with modern facilities, this is the match.

Browse homes zoned to Rough Hollow Elementary or homes zoned to Bee Cave Elementary to see what’s currently available.

So Which School Fits Your Family?

I get this question constantly, and the honest answer is that it depends on what you value most. Neither school is the wrong choice. But they attract different families for different reasons.

Bee Cave Elementary might be your fit if:

• You value a long track record and deeply experienced staff
• You want an active, well-established PTA community
• You prefer central Bee Cave’s convenience and housing variety
• Continuity and institutional stability matter to you
• You want teachers who’ve been in the building for years, not months

Rough Hollow Elementary might be your fit if:

• You want modern facilities and purpose-built learning spaces
• STEM programming is a priority for your child
• You like the idea of a school still creating its traditions (and your family helping shape them)
• You’re buying in Rough Hollow or Sweetwater and want the neighborhood-school integration
• Student leadership development resonates with your parenting approach

Both schools feed into the Lake Travis ISD pipeline, which means your child ends up at Lake Travis High School regardless. The long-term academic trajectory is comparable. What differs is the day-to-day experience and the community surrounding it.

A Note on LTISD and Getting Involved

One thing I always tell families moving to this area: Lake Travis ISD is a district that rewards parent involvement. You don’t have to be a PTA president. But showing up, knowing your kid’s teacher, and understanding how the district operates makes a real difference.

I sit on LTISD’s Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC), and through that work I’ve seen how both of these campuses handle the full range of student needs. If your child has an IEP, a 504, or you suspect they might need additional support, feel free to ask me about that specifically. It’s a conversation worth having before you choose a home.

For a broader look at how all the elementary campuses stack up, check out my full comparison of Lake Travis ISD elementary schools.

Ready to Find a Home in the Right Zone?

School zoning is one of those things that can shift, so verifying boundaries before you buy is non-negotiable. I help families navigate this every week. Whether you’re narrowing it down to Bee Cave Elementary or Rough Hollow Elementary, or you’re still figuring out which part of the Lake Travis area fits best, let’s talk through it.

I’ll make sure you end up in the right neighborhood, zoned to the right school, in a home that actually works for your family. That’s the whole point.