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Shovels are mounted in a pile of dirt, alongside a bulldozer and podium. Teachers, principals, past and former students, mayor Bob Bruggeman and TISD faculty gather to commemorate the beginning of a new future.
On Oct. 19, a ceremony was held in honor of the ground breaking for Parks Elementary, located on Pine Street. This new elementary school will open in 2025, combining Highland Park Elementary and Spring Lake Park Elementary, two schools that have been historically embedded into Texarkana for decades.
“We’ve already got some dirt work underway, some site preparation,” superintendent Dr. Doug Brubaker said. “So this building is going to be completed in August 2025, and we’re celebrating the beginning of that progress today.”
Last school year, TISD received funding that made this new addition shift from a dream to reality.
“This is a project that was made possible by residents of Texarkana ISD through their approval of the 2022 bond program,” Brubaker said. “As a school district, we are very grateful for this support and the opportunities that it will create for our students.”
This new addition to TISD will largely benefit future attendees with everything from classrooms to playgrounds being updated. Students will have cutting edge learning environments to ensure they have the knowledge and skills they need.
“We had a faculty assessment done in 2021,[when] they identified Highland Park and Spring Lake Park Elementary [as] two schools that
really needed to be replaced,” Brubaker said. “We have the opportunity here to build one larger elementary school that will serve the students from both communities. We’re going to honor the rich tradition and history of [both elementaries] and also the Pine Street site.”
Both elementary schools have a large minority population and receive less funding than opposing elementaries that have a white majority.
“Parks would give our kids opportunities that they wouldn’t have otherwise,” Highland Park teacher Becky Shaw said. “We have a low income school so our students don’t have the resources that other schools do. I think it may change their attitudes about school and make them excited to learn.”
Students of Park Elementary will benefit
from sharing a campus with kids from different backgrounds in having a more diverse population.
“We have a bilingual campus so we have a large Hispanic population,” Shaw said. “It’s going to be good for the kids who go to Spring Lake Park to join with our school to meet those kids. It will be a great way for them to see more diversity and for our kids to experience a diverse campus.”
Many community members are excited for what awaits future Parks students.
“As a former student, I think it’s a great opportunity for kids in that area to get the education level that they deserve,” senior Arthur McElroy said.
