Trustee Robert Sitton said the name celebrates 100 years of Humble ISD, as the Texas Legislature combined the Harris County Common School District 50 into Humble ISD in February 1919.
“It is an elementary school that’s going to be drawing from multiple neighborhoods as well,” Sitton said. “So a lot of the interior design of that school is going to really play into the centennial-type historical title.”
Trustees approved the attendance boundary for Centennial Elementary at the Sept. 10 meeting. Located in the Atascocita area in the Lakewood Pines neighborhood, Centennial Elementary will open in August 2020. It will alleviate overcrowding and prevent congestion at nearby campuses, such as Lakeshore, Ridge Creek and Groves elementary schools, district officials said at the Sept. 10 meeting.
The boundaries will phase out Lakeshore Elementary’s flex zone to Groves Elementary and will create a new flex zone encompassing parts of the master-planned Balmoral community, according to district officials. Students in portions of Balmoral will be able to choose to attend the school they are currently zoned to—either Ridge Creek or Groves elementary schools respective of home locations—or the new Centennial Elementary.
The zoning will also transfer roughly 560 students from Lakeshore Elementary to Centennial Elementary.
Moving forward
In addition to naming Centennial Elementary, trustees received a presentation from architectural firm PBK Architects on the future unnamed Elementary School No. 30, which is set to open on Aspen Fall Lane in the Fall Creek neighborhood in August 2021. The school will cost $31.2 million to build, and it is funded by the $575 million school bond approved by voters in May 2018.
PBK Senior Project Designer Jorge Tiscareno said the school will be designed much like Lakeland Elementary School in that it will feature a play-based learning design and numerous flexible spaces. It will serve students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
"Obviously it will be a little different [than Lakeland] to tie in with curriculum and to tie in with the nature of the community," Tiscareno said.
The future school will also have be on elevated ground because the site is located in Harris County's flood plain, PBK Senior Project Manager Jeff Chapman said. Harris County's flood plain design standards require structures to be built three feet above the 500-year flood plain.
Contractors will also have to deepen existing detention ponds near the school's site to meet the county's new development standards approved in July, Chapman said. The elevated site should not affect flooding, as the project is not allowed to create any stormwater runoff in the surrounding area, he said.
