The weeks ahead will see major milestones for the remaining schools under construction in the $355 million Waco Independent School District bond issue, with Kendrick Elementary School preparing to move temporarily, a new Tennyson Middle School starting the home stretch of interior work and a new Waco High School at the halfway mark.
With the final stages of those building projects in sight, Waco ISD trustees also got a look at what is beyond at their Thursday night meeting, with Waco city officials sharing their vision of a major downtown redevelopment in which the school district will play a key role.
Superintendent Susan Kincannon told trustees Kendrick Elementary faculty and staff are busy packing up classrooms and school equipment to prepare for a move beginning Wednesday and Thursday to the Indian Spring Middle School building. At the same time, district workers have been preparing the middle school for its new elementary school students.
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Kendrick Elementary School will operate in the former Indian Spring Middle School campus this spring and next year as construction gets underway on a new Kendrick Elementary on the school’s present site.
The short timeline between the end of classes Dec. 20 and the start of spring classes Jan. 8 made this “a hard move,” and extra pay has been authorized for teachers and staff working to make it happen over holiday break, the superintendent told the board. She praised the leadership of Principal Isabel Lozano and the cooperation of Kendrick staff in organizing the move.
District officials also are working on adapting bus routes to take students to the Indian Spring campus and hope to get that information to parents before the beginning of the holiday break, Kincannon said.
More Kendrick students will be riding the bus to the Indian Spring campus, located about four miles from the current elementary school, and the district may need to adjust the start and end of the school day at Kendrick to accommodate the bus schedules, Kincannon said.
An open house for students and parents at the Indian Spring location is planned from 5 to 7 p.m. Jan. 8.
Construction is expected to begin early next year at the Kendrick site and at South Waco Elementary School, which will see a building expansion as part of the construction bond project. Kincannon told the board she anticipates groundbreaking next month for both construction projects.
Waco High School students, graduates and supporters can sign the final steel beam to be installed in the new high school between noon and 6 p.m. Dec. 12. That beam will be installed in a topping-out ceremony Dec. 14, marking the midway point in the high school’s construction. The $140.5 million high school is expected to open at the start of the 2025-26 school year along with Kendrick Elementary.
WATCH NOW: Take a look at the new $140.5 million Waco High School roughly midway through its construction on Nov. 6, 2023.
CORE Construction project manager Isaiah Unruh and O’Connell Robertson architect Doug Dawson updated the board on the work to date at Tennyson. Unruh said the steel work and roofing at the new Tennyson Middle School are finished, with electrical power expected to be turned on later in the month and interior framing underway.
The $77 million middle school is on track for its opening by the start of the 2024-25 school year, with a certificate of occupancy anticipated by April. Construction of a running track and parking area behind the school, the last phase in its construction, are expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
The school used a similar design and floor plan as the new G.W. Carver Middle School, which opened this year, but Unruh said the compact Tennyson site presented challenges, with just five feet between the old and new buildings at their closest point and a power transmission line running above the campus.
Downtown plans
Thursday’s board meeting included a presentation by Waco strategic initiatives director Tom Balk and interim economic development director Jeremy Pesina on the city’s proposed revamp of civic facilities downtown.
The project, which Balk termed “a once in a lifetime opportunity,” involves more than 60 acres of central downtown, centered roughly on City Hall and the area between it and the Brazos River. Architectural firm Gensler presented its vision for downtown Waco to the Waco City Council in April as the city considered options for a new municipal services building.
The development proposal unveiled at that time not only includes a new municipal services building, but a performing arts center, a residential complex and minor league baseball stadium near the current Indian Spring Middle School building, an expansive public green space extending to the Brazos River, a new convention center and hotel, plus multiple office and retail buildings.
Balk said the far-reaching project would reestablish the downtown riverfront area as the city’s focal point.
The city presently is soliciting proposals for a master developer, an early step in project development, with Kincannon a member of the scoring panel that will make recommendations for city council action in early January. Balk said he hopes construction on the first stage of the project can start by 2025.
Waco ISD owns 24 of the approximately 60 acres affected by the project, primarily the district’s 10-story administration tower at 501 Franklin Ave. and the Indian Spring Middle School campus, which will house Kendrick Elementary for the next year and a half.
Waco ISD board President Stephanie Korteweg and Trustee Jonathan Grant thanked Balk and Pesina for the city’s initiative and vision expressed in the development plan.
