Posted 2:27 am Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Andy Woods Students Excited About New School
MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer
"You guys excited about a new school?" Tyler ISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid asked a crowd of Andy Woods Elementary School kids Tuesday afternoon.
They wildly cheered and replied, "Yeah!"
"Before you know it, you're going to have a brand new facility standing right here where you are," Reid said as TISD celebrated the start of construction for the new Andy Woods Elementary with a groundbreaking ceremony.
Tuesday's event was the first groundbreaking event for new schools in TISD's 2008 bond program, which represents Phase 2 of a multi-phase approach to tackling facilities issues in TISD.
The new Woods is one of the five replacement campuses being built as part of the $124.9 million bond program that TISD voters approved in November.
The bond program will replace Clarkston, Griffin, Jones, Orr and Woods elementary schools, as well as the St. Louis School-Wayne D. Boshears Center for Exceptional Programs. Jones and the Boshears school will be constructed as one facility.
The district hopes to open all of the schools in August 2010.
The school board approved a guaranteed maximum price of $15,190,760 for Woods from Denson Construction Company Inc. at a recent school board meeting.
Woods will be a school similar in design to the Jack Elementary model, with some slight modifications. Jack was one of seven schools built as part of the 2004 bond program. Woods will be built as an 800-student campus.
"We are thrilled to be to the point where we are ready to break ground on our beautiful new campus," Woods Principal Connie Moore told the crowd of students, parents and community members at the ceremony. "As we move from our old building to our new, we will take with us our traditions, our pride and we will keep moving forward, reaching those high expectations for student achievement and preparing our children to be the very best that they can be."
TISD Board Vice President Michelle Carr thanked the crowd for its confidence in the school board and administration and for approving the 2008 bond proposal.
"We know Andy Woods has a great reputation for being a place of learning, a community that is very, very supportive and has high expectations," Ms. Carr said. "We know that the new school will also serve to enhance the learning environment ΓΆΒ?Β»"
Ms. Moore said after the ceremony that the groundbreaking event gives the students a vision of what is happening.
"Up until now it has been very abstract for them," Ms. Moore said. "It gave the children a look ahead to what is going to be a reality for them. They are so excited about having space, getting rid of the portables so that everyone can be in the building ΓΆΒ?Β» technology, everything that the new building will have."
She said she knows teachers will also be happy to be under one roof when the new facility is built.
The current third-graders at Woods are expected to be the first fifth-grade class to graduate from the new Woods Elementary when it opens.
Third-graders Nathan Henson and Morgan Thorne said they are excited about being the first fifth-grade class to graduate from the new school, and said they are excited about what's to come.
"I can't wait 'til the first day of school," Nathan said. "I want to see what it's like."
Staff Writer
"You guys excited about a new school?" Tyler ISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid asked a crowd of Andy Woods Elementary School kids Tuesday afternoon.
They wildly cheered and replied, "Yeah!"
"Before you know it, you're going to have a brand new facility standing right here where you are," Reid said as TISD celebrated the start of construction for the new Andy Woods Elementary with a groundbreaking ceremony.
Tuesday's event was the first groundbreaking event for new schools in TISD's 2008 bond program, which represents Phase 2 of a multi-phase approach to tackling facilities issues in TISD.
The new Woods is one of the five replacement campuses being built as part of the $124.9 million bond program that TISD voters approved in November.
The bond program will replace Clarkston, Griffin, Jones, Orr and Woods elementary schools, as well as the St. Louis School-Wayne D. Boshears Center for Exceptional Programs. Jones and the Boshears school will be constructed as one facility.
The district hopes to open all of the schools in August 2010.
The school board approved a guaranteed maximum price of $15,190,760 for Woods from Denson Construction Company Inc. at a recent school board meeting.
Woods will be a school similar in design to the Jack Elementary model, with some slight modifications. Jack was one of seven schools built as part of the 2004 bond program. Woods will be built as an 800-student campus.
"We are thrilled to be to the point where we are ready to break ground on our beautiful new campus," Woods Principal Connie Moore told the crowd of students, parents and community members at the ceremony. "As we move from our old building to our new, we will take with us our traditions, our pride and we will keep moving forward, reaching those high expectations for student achievement and preparing our children to be the very best that they can be."
TISD Board Vice President Michelle Carr thanked the crowd for its confidence in the school board and administration and for approving the 2008 bond proposal.
"We know Andy Woods has a great reputation for being a place of learning, a community that is very, very supportive and has high expectations," Ms. Carr said. "We know that the new school will also serve to enhance the learning environment ΓΆΒ?Β»"
Ms. Moore said after the ceremony that the groundbreaking event gives the students a vision of what is happening.
"Up until now it has been very abstract for them," Ms. Moore said. "It gave the children a look ahead to what is going to be a reality for them. They are so excited about having space, getting rid of the portables so that everyone can be in the building ΓΆΒ?Β» technology, everything that the new building will have."
She said she knows teachers will also be happy to be under one roof when the new facility is built.
The current third-graders at Woods are expected to be the first fifth-grade class to graduate from the new Woods Elementary when it opens.
Third-graders Nathan Henson and Morgan Thorne said they are excited about being the first fifth-grade class to graduate from the new school, and said they are excited about what's to come.
"I can't wait 'til the first day of school," Nathan said. "I want to see what it's like."
