Woodard ES opens Aug. 24

Woodard ES namesake Sadie Harris Woodard greets future students of the campus during an open house and guided tour on Aug. 15.

CFISD’s 54^th elementary school, Sadie Harris Woodard ES, will open its doors for its inaugural school year on Aug. 24, 2015.

This past weekend, CFISD Facilities Project Manager Shannon Thompson and the CFISD Operations Team led by Matt Morgan, Tammy Blankenship, Andy Correa and Geoffrey Morales provided a huge opportunity for the Woodard administrative team and staff to welcome students, parents and family on the campus for guided tours from 10 a.m. to noon.

More than 900 visitors, including CFISD retirees Benny Malone and Sadie Woodard and Superintendent Dr. Mark Henry, joined the celebration.  

“By taking small groups of students and parents through the campus, we were able to give them an opportunity to feel the excitement we all have in opening this new campus for our district,” said Susan Brenz, Woodard principal. “There were so many smiles and excitement built from this experience as well as giving parents a chance to ask questions and see all areas of the campus where their children will be learning and growing in just over a week.”

Woodard ES families tour CFISD’s 54^th elementary campus on Aug. 15.

Woodard staff filled in the students and parents about the many features unique to the elementary schools:

• PBK Architect Brandon Ross designed Woodard ES as a “green school” with an emphasis on reducing/reusing/recycling with campus features such as monitors to demonstrate energy consumption around the campus, the use of solar panels and use of natural light as approximately 99 percent of classrooms and offices have a window to the outside world, thus reducing the need for overhead lighting. This will be emphasized with the school’s fifth-grade student leadership community service recycling outreach and third- and fourth-grade Watt Watcher groups. 
• Technology bond money showcasing a number of new technologies such as mounted Promethean boards in all classrooms, seven tablets per classroom, laptops/tablets on wheels for checkout, document cameras in all classrooms, individual classroom sound systems and a tablet/laptop hybrid for all teachers. “We will be a Twitter campus @WoodardCFISD for parents to follow us with up-to-the-minute posts of what’s happening around campus,” Brenz said. 
• Building design specifications: an art room with exterior courtyard for creating artwork outside, a double-entry stage to the music room with a full floor-to-ceiling instructional white board, a large gym and one-eighth-mile cement track outside along with ample playground space as a result of the two-story design, science rooms with color-coded open ceilings used for instructional purposes, flex classrooms with unique furniture for various student grouping combinations, library with instructional KIVA attached via technology and video to the workroom for teacher training, a teacher planning room for every grade level, individual bathrooms for each grade level as well as contained within each PPCD/PK/Kindergarten classroom and three driveways to support an efficient flow of traffic for parents and visitors.
• Communication expectations overview with an emphasis on our campus webpage documents already loaded for the school year, SchoolMessenger and Twitter as ways the school will communicate with parents. The staff overviewed clubs available to students in grades 1-5.

From left, Woodard ES Principal Susan Brenz, namesake Sadie Harris Woodard and CFISD Superintendent Dr. Mark Henry enjoy the environment of the new elementary campus.

“There has been so much buzz in the neighborhood about the design of the campus, which looks and feels more like a middle school in size and layout, that everyone was thrilled to have the opportunity to see it firsthand even as final touches to the construction are being completed by Drymalla Construction Company,” Brenz said.

Woodard ES namesake Sadie Harris Woodard, far left, and Principal Susan Brenz, far right, welcome PPCD/PK S.O.A.R. Teammates Chelsea Black, Amanda Colton and Mary-Catherine Ivie to the school.

 

Principal Susan Brenz, namesake Sadie Harris Woodard and retiree Benny Malone were on hand to welcome incoming students and families to Woodard ES.