Successful bond election gets TISD building for growth
Following a seven-month long Strategic Planning process from September 2013 to March 2014, Texarkana Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a new mission statement.
The mission statement: An innovative learning community, strengthened by its diversity, which provides a superior education in a caring environment that inspires, challenges and engages each student through a wide range of opportunities.
The new mission, along with short-term and longterm goals for the next five years, allowed TISD to further develop its strategic plan consisting of three parameters, 10 belief statements, four strategic objectives and seven strategies.
The action plan focused on seven strategies and the respective actions needed to accomplish those during the next several years.
Key recommendations from the process were the building of a new Sixth Grade Center at Texas Middle School and a new elementary school.
In August 2014, TISD Board of Trustees approved the order to call for a school bond election on Nov. 4, 2014 for the purposes of addressing overcrowding due to enrollment increases and projected growth in the coming years.
Student enrollment projections for 2014-15 were 7,305, which placed the school district at 106 percent overall capacity.
“TISD has had steady enrollment of an average 150 students per year for the last 12 years,” commented TISD Superintendent Paul Norton.
“Our combined elementary campuses are at 99 percent capacity, Texas Middle School is at 114 percent capacity and Texas High School is at 112 percent capacity. We now find ourselves at a pivotal decision point in order to prepare for the future and maintain an appropriate student/teacher ratio.”
The $29.9 million Bond Election addressed only two issues to ease the overcrowding: the building of a new elementary campus and a stand-alone Sixth Grade Center on the Texas Middle School campus.
TISD taxpayers approved and in April of this year, the TISD community broke ground on the new Sixth Grade Center at Texas Middle School.
The new facility, slated for an August 2016 opening, has a total of 65,800 square feet and will house 23 student classrooms and seven student labs. School capacity has been designed for 700 students. Other lab areas included will be for Art, Music, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) Academy and IDEAs (Innovative Design & Exploration of the Arts) Academy along with a Research and Design Center/ Library, cafeteria and kitchen.
The exterior brick, metal wall panels and metal roof will have similar stylings and colors as the existing middle school building and will feature covered walks for car and bus pick-up and drop-off.
The interior will be very modern with a technological feel in colors of grey, cream, green, metals and orange. The building has been positioned and designed for space add-on for future enrollment growth.
In March, TISD trustees approved a resolution to purchase property for the new elementary campus, which allows the superintendent to begin finalizing a sale contract with the property owners.
“Once that is finalized, we will then start the same process that we have been doing with the Sixth Grade Center in terms of working with design and construction in order to ensure that students are walking through the campus doors in August 2016,” Norton said.
Property for the new elementary school includes 15 acres off Gibson Lane near the southwest corner of the Encore Waggoner Creek Apartment Homes. The school is expected to serve approximately 400 students in prekindergarten through fifth grade.
“Throughout the bond process and proposal, TISD talked about the need for a new elementary campus toward the west end of the district due in part to the continued growth of Texarkana toward the west,” stated Norton.
“We evaluated 11 different properties since January in order to determine the best location for our new elementary school. I believe this location meets the needs of the district’s west end and prepares TISD for continued growth as a school district.”
TISD is currently working toward design.