By Lindsey Coulter��

AUSTIN, Texas��— Construction is now underway on Oak Springs Elementary School in Austin, Texas. The project was part of an ongoing bond program for Austin Independent School District (AISD), which was approved in 2022 and includes more than $2 billion in capital projects for local schools. ��

Huckabee, a Fort Worth-based education design firm and the founding brand of MOREgroup, is the architect on the new 83,000-square-foot, two-story building, which will include a new gym with a basketball court, full cafeteria, theater, music studio and exterior rain garden. Designed to foster collaboration, the learning spaces, referred to as studios, will have walls that open toward the hallways, enabling them to merge with adjacent spaces to encourage interactive learning among students and teachers. The school will also include mental health and wellness areas, new presentation and display systems, technology security improvements and network infrastructure upgrades.��

“This new building will provide a safe, innovative and collaborative space that greatly enhances the school’s educational offerings,” said George Zakar, project executive at Hoar Construction, the project’s builder, in a statement.��“At Hoar, we look forward to drawing on our extensive experience of working on active campuses across Texas to minimize disruption to student learning and maintain the highest safety standards throughout the construction process.”��

The design will also include high-grade concrete floors and a cool, pastel color palette to complement the school’s mascot, the dolphin. In addition to dedicated outdoor learning spaces, a new playground will be built on campus and shared with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, with a community center attached to the facility for public events. To ensure student safety, the community center will have a separate entrance from the school. The school itself will also benefit from a variety of enhanced security features.��

Students and administrators will continue to use the existing building until the $47 million replacement facility is complete in spring 2027. The former school, which was built in 1958, will then be demolished and converted into parking spaces.��

The 2022 bond program also includes projects across the district, including the installation of secure entry vestibules on all campuses as well as upgraded doors, locks and security fencing. The funding will also address deferred maintenance and upgrades to plumbing, HVAC and roofing, focusing on schools with critical deficiencies. Additionally, 26 aging facilities—including eight high schools, five middle schools and 13 elementary schools—will receive full or phased modernizations. Improvements to athletic facilities will bring new turf fields, lighting and seating to the district’s athletic facilities, while career and technical education programs will receive a boost through new permanent facilities to replace portable buildings at two early college high schools.��

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Ledbetter has more than 30 years of experience within the public education sphere. Recently, he retired from the Southlake Carroll School District in Southlake, Texas, where he served as superintendent and superintendent emeritus. With additional experience as an adjunct professor at Dallas Baptist University and as superintendent in other Texas school districts—including Midlothian, Graham and Birdville in Haltom City—Ledbetter will bring his extensive knowledge of curriculum alignment and master-schedule development to create innovative, student-centered schools.����

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UVALDE, Texas—The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has announced that two prominent firms will work gratis to replace Robb Elementary, site of last May’s tragic shooting in which 21 people were killed.

The district is estimating the replacement school will cost between $25 million and $30 million, according to the Austin American-Statesman, and donations from the public are also being sought to cover additional expenses.

Architecture firm Huckabee and Joeris General Contractors, both of whom are well known in the Lone Star State, have agreed to waive their usual service fees for the project. Other details are being worked out under a new organization called Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation.

Understandably, given the horrific nature of the mass shooting there last summer, the Uvalde CISD is also investing in security enhancements for the new school.

Robb Elementary, which was built in the 1960s, is due for demolition, and the site for the new school building has yet to be determined. Meanwhile, Robb’s students are attending the nearby Flores Elementary. District personnel have hinted that a memorial may be installed at the site of Robb Elementary after the school building is razed.

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HASLET, Tex.—National general contracting firm Adolfson & Peterson Construction announced that it has finished buildout of the Haslet Elementary School for Texas’s Northwest Independent School District (ISD). The new school, located at 501 School House Road, will encompass 100,000 square feet of educational space for 800 students, plus provide additional space for the school’s support staff.

Huckabee served as the design partner on the project, and the school includes “learning pods” and collaborative education spaces, as well as an open concept library. Furthermore, the design features a common area that will be utilized for both flexible learning as well as dining.

Those high-volume learning areas have been affectionately nicknamed “the Nest,” as their design calls to mind a large tree house—to which students can gravitate as a central meeting space. Next to the Nest are more classrooms, some of which feature flexible walls to allow for the expansion or contraction of learning space as needed. Natural light is plentiful throughout the learning areas.

The outside of Haslet Elementary School offers courtyards, recreational fields, playgrounds and ample parking spaces. In addition, given that Texas is prone to severe weather events, a storm shelter has been constructed on the campus as well.

Adolfson & Peterson Construction worked in coordination with architect Huckabee on the school. Construction commenced in the summer of 2019 and was completed late last year—even with coronavirus restrictions and weather-related delays.

“Haslet is a growing community, and this new facility provides ample space for current and future students,” Bob Lemke, Adolfson & Peterson’s vice president of operations, said in a recent statement. “Every square foot of the school’s interior and exterior is designed to promote collaborative learning.

“We’re proud to have worked on this unique project, and we’re happy it will be a prototype for future Northwest ISD elementary schools.”

Adolfson & Peterson’s other school-related projects in North Texas include Garland ISD’s Garland High School and Hudson Middle School, Arlington ISD’s Arts and Athletics Complex, and Highland Park ISD’s Highland Park High and Middle Schools. The Charlotte-based firm is also hard at work on the Marshall Law and Medical Services Magnet High School for San Antonio’s Northside ISD.

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CLEVELAND, Texas—A groundbreaking ceremony was held in late September by the Cleveland Independent School District (CISD) for its $30 million new elementary school.

With a completion date slated for next summer, the new school—which has not yet been named, but is referred to as Elementary No. 5—is part of the $198 million bond measure that voters passed in November 2019 to handle the explosive growth in the district. Cleveland ISD is the fastest-growing school district in Texas. Over the last three years, the school district has grown approximately 20 percent each year. Last year, 1,000 new students enrolled in Cleveland ISD, resulting in the district spending more than $3 million on portable buildings.

The two-story elementary school will accommodate approximately 1,000 students. The school features 49 classrooms, a gymnasium, a library with a maker space where students can gather to create, invent, and learn, and a cafeteria with stage, music, and art rooms. Grades PreK through 4 will accommodate 22 students in each classroom; grade 5 will accommodate 25; and special education will accommodate 15.

The school’s design is based on the district’s existing Southside Elementary School. The exterior is brick with a standing seam metal roof over most of the building.��Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN)��is the program manager, Huckabee is the architect, and Pogue Construction is the general contractor.

“This groundbreaking marks an important achievement toward managing our incredible growth,” said Chris Trotter, Cleveland ISD’s superintendent, in a statement.

“I am so pleased at the support for our district from the community and look forward to welcoming students through the doors of this building.”

Added LAN Vice President JP Grom, “The elementary school will provide students the environment and infrastructure needed to succeed in the 21st century.”

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HOUSTON—Sheldon Independent School District (ISD) recently announced the completion of its new C.E. King High School in the Houston area.

Designed by Huckabee and constructed by Durotech, the school is a flagship campus for Sheldon ISD’s program. The 580,000-square-foot campus is just a mile from Generation Park and will house up to 3,500 students. The school is designed like a college campus, with promenades and quads where students, faculty and community members can interact. The classrooms have flexible spaces where educators can plug and play various teaching equipment based on workforce demand.

The campus features a traditional, comprehensive high school education program, as well as six career and technical academies aimed at helping students become college and career ready. The six academies include: business and industry; human services; public service; agriculture, manufacturing and construction; science, technology, fine arts and math; and an early college academy for traditional academics. The goal for the early college academy is for students to graduate with not only a high school diploma, but an associate’s degree or an industry certificate that can help students continue on to community college, trade schools and traditional four-year college.

Sheldon ISD is one of the fastest-growing school districts in the Houston area. The 9,000-student school district is in the booming petrochemical corridor northeast of Houston. By 2025, Sheldon ISD is expected to have more than 15,000 students. In May 2016, to handle this rapid growth, Sheldon ISD voters overwhelmingly passed a $285 million bond to address student growth, safety and security measures and other potential facility upgrades. This bond program is the largest in the district’s history.

“Sheldon is making a statement with this new high school,” said JP Grom, AIA, vice president at Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN), the firm serving as the program manager for the bond program. “The high school will serve as a visual anchor point for Sheldon ISD. They’re driving a stake in the ground, saying ‘Sheldon ISD is here, we’ve arrived.’”

Other elements of the bond program include the Sheldon Lake Elementary School and Panther Stadium that opened in August 2019, new track, baseball and softball fields, and tennis courts. The bond program also includes additions and renovations to existing middle schools as well as district-wide energy management upgrades.

LAN is a full-service consulting firm offering planning, engineering and program management services for the nation’s heavy civil infrastructure needs.

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The new tech center is part of GCCISD’s $267 million bond program that passed in May 2013. Located in Baytown, Texas, GCCISD is one of the fastest growing school districts in the state. The district projects more than 4,500 new students over the next decade, according to a demographic study. In response to this growth, local voters passed the $267 million bond program. Already, the school district has grown from 21,000 students when the bond passed in 2013 to nearly 24,000 students in 2018.

The 32,400-square-foot, two-story technology center, designed by Huckabee and constructed by Durotech, is situated on an eight-acre tract next to Alamo Elementary School. It showcases 3,900 square feet of training rooms on the first floor, where teachers can learn how to integrate technology and software into their classrooms, and a 2,000-square-foot network operating center with servers on the second floor. It also houses a 1,900-square-foot technology work area, 3,500 square feet of storage space, a warehouse for receiving technology equipment and office space.

“The facility will serve as the “brain center” for the district,” said JP Grom, vice president at Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN), the firm that is serving as the program manager for the bond program. “It will allow GCCISD to store student and teacher data within the district, rather than relying on a third-party data facility. It will also serve as the district’s emergency operations center in the event of a hurricane or other emergencies.”

Other elements of the bond program include three new elementary schools, which opened in 2015, a new transportation center that was completed in 2017, and an agriculture science building that opened in 2018. The bond package also includes additions to four facilities, renovation of STEM labs in five schools and security upgrades. In addition, the bond package has enabled GCCISD to accomplish its goal of retiring $52 million in deferred maintenance.

LAN is a full-service consulting firm offering planning, engineering and program management services.

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