Colony Meadows marks 25 years in Sugar Land
Colony Meadows Elementary School is celebrating its 25th anniversary in two parts.
The first event took place April 1, when the school’s PTO presented “A Night to Remember” at Sweetwater Country Club in Sugar Land. Festivities included dinner and dancing, along with live and silent auctions.
“This is a night we get to see parents in a different atmosphere,” Principal Melissa Bolding said. “It’s a fun event.”
The second part of the celebration is scheduled for fall, when the school, 16431 Lexington Blvd., hosts an on-campus dance for parents and students. Initial plans include ’90s-era dress and music.
Colony Meadows has changed little since the campus opened in 1991, said Sharon Hicks, Bolding’s executive assistant, who has worked there for about 20 years.
“The main difference is the staff — it changes every year,”
Hicks said. “The thing that doesn’t change is the school is so family-oriented.”
Hicks said she and other staff and faculty members tend to get close to the Colony Creek parents, some of whom send two, three, even four children to the school.
The students form close bonds, too. The school recognizes that by inviting graduating seniors from Clements High School to come back to Colony Meadows for a visit each spring.
“The teachers who are still here have a chance to see them, and the kids have a blast,” Bolding said.
Parents volunteer
Colony Meadows also has had the benefit over the years of a strong parent volunteer base.
The PTO hosts fundraising dinners for the school. Some of the most popular items among bidders are a parking spot in front of the school and naming rights to the school driveway.
At the April anniversary event, guests also got to bid on the right to name the school’s new pavilion, an anniversary gift from the PTO that’s under construction behind the school.
Auction features events
Other auction items that parents bid on at the PTO auctions include student admissions to Fun with Faculty events, which gives children opportunities to spend time with teachers outside the class setting. First-graders, for example, have “Pancakes and Pajamas” parties with their teachers after school. The children who attend also get popcorn to munch while they watch movies together.
The PTO auctions “Princess for a Day,” “Principal for a Day” and gradelevel goodie baskets, too.
“A lot of the auction items are about getting together and being together, or doing something with teachers in a different way,” Bolding said.
The school will announce more details about the school’s fall anniversary celebration as the event nears.
Colony Meadows has about 800 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade. Its feeder schools, in addition to Clements, include Fort Settlement Middle School.