The Georgetown ISD board of trustees named the two new elementary schools and the district central office Nov. 12.
The board unanimously approved the buildings to be named Wolf Ranch Elementary School, Everett L. Williams Elementary School and Georgetown ISD Administration and Hammerlun Center for Leadership and Learning.
Wolf Ranch Elementary will be located in the Wolf Ranch development south of SH 29. The building of the school was authorized through the 2018 bond and is expected to be open fall 2020 to relieve overcrowded classrooms at Pickett Elementary School.
Everett L. Williams Elementary is named after "Pop" Williams, the former Georgetown High School principal and namesake of the former elementary school. Funding will come from the 2018 bond, and it is estimated to be open fall 2020. This school, located on Rockride Lane near the Fairhaven development, will relieve students from Carver Elementary School.
Construction of both middle schools is expected to start in April.
“With the approval of Proposition A in last week’s election, voters made a commitment to our students and staff in supporting this district's future—that includes building two new elementary schools in the fastest-growing areas of this city,” GISD Superintendent Fred Brent said.
The board also approved the name of the new central office as the Georgetown ISD Administration and Hammerlun Center for Leadership and Learning. Located at 507 E. University Ave., the building is in its final stages of renovation. It was constructed in 1924 and served as the original Georgetown High School as well as a middle and elementary school.
The learning development center within the campus was named after Jerry Hammerlun, former president of Huckabee—one of the main architectural firms the district works with—who died in June 2017.
Brent said Hammerlun played a large role in the original designs for the building and made it clear the district needed to honor the past while embracing the future.
“Since day one [Hammerlun] was committed to growing adults. [He] was passionate about public education and growing future leaders,” Brent said. “It only seems fitting that the new administration building be named in his honor.”
Employees will begin moving into the new administration building—which was renovated through the 2015 bond—Dec. 10 and will be open to the public Dec. 17. The next school board meeting will be held at the new administration building Dec. 17.
In other business:
- David Biesheuvel, GISD executive director of facilities and construction, updated the board on the completion of the Tippit Middle School renovation. Biesheuvel said the old cafeteria has been demolished, and crews are working to complete the parking lot. The project will be done in January and is the final project to be completed as part of 2015 bond, Biesheuvel said.
- Biesheuvel also updated the board of plans to move forward with the 2018 bond after Proposition A—the $160.5 million portion of the bond—was passed Nov. 6. The district will begin renovating the athletic fields and tracks of three middle schools and East View High School immediately. Biesheuvel said they plan to have the athletic fields at East View completed in January and the middle schools in March.
