WFISD completed $25M junior high renovations in 2016 – Times Record News

Lana Sweeten-Shults , Times Record News 1:05 a.m. CT Feb. 26, 2017

Barwise Middle School students race to their classrooms in August 2016. The Wichita Falls ISD carved out $25 million for additions and renovations to Barwise, McNiel and Kirby junior high schools, which have all been converted to middle schools.(Photo: Times Record News file)Buy Photo

In 2014, voters scoffed, decidedly, at a bold plan by the Wichita Falls ISD to fix the old-school-buildings conundrum.

The district, after all, faced a facilities crisis as some campuses reached and surpassed the century mark.

The plan: Go to a two-high school system by building a new mega high school, convert Hirschi High to a second, smaller school and add a career and technical education center.

It was a failed attempt by the district to try to do something about its aging facilities.

Some campuses were filled to capacity while others were woefully underused, in part because families were able to chose the school their children attended.

Just a year later, in May 2015, votersgave the thumbs up to another school bond, a $59.5 million bond that cost less than half the price of the 2014 proposal. The new bond, once again, would take a step toward alleviating the aging schools issue by making better use of the districts facilities.

One of the key bond projects to help accomplish that vision: renovating the junior high schools, a major project for the district in 2016.

It was a fast-track project under the helm of Construction Manager At Risk Anthony Inman with schematic designs approved by the school boardin August 2015 by Perkins+Will.

McNiel Middle School sixth-grade reading teacher Datra Lonon talks to visitors about her classroom Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, during a open house. The Wichita Falls ISD moved all its sixth-graders to the junior highs and converted them to middle schools in 2016. Barwise and McNiel received the most extensive renovations with the addition of sixth-grade wings and expansion of common areas, such as cafeterias, gyms and fine arts spaces.(Photo: Times Record News file)

The district carved out $25 million, a little less than half the bond money, to convert the junior highs to middle schools.

Along with amending the school choice concept - students are now assigned to zoned schools, although they still can apply to attend a noncapacity campus - the plan was to move sixth-graders out of the elementary schools.

The district already had closed several elementary campuses over the past few years, including Alamo and Sam Houston in 2014, and converted Zundelowitz Junior High to an elementary school.

Now it looked to add sixth-grade wings to Barwise and McNiel junior highs, along with expanding common spaces at both those campuses, such as cafeterias, fine arts spaces and locker rooms.

About $22.3 million of renovations went into Barwise and McNiel.

Kirby Middle School would also get renovations, though they would be less extensive.

The Barwise and McNiel additions were completed in less than a year, by the summer of 2016, and in time for the first day of class in August. Those campuses welcomed 700 sixth-graders.

Barwise, which already had a sixth-grade presence as part of its leadership academy format, added about 300 more sixth-graders for a total of 400.

McNiel, meanwhile, welcomed 400 new sixth-graders in its facilities.

The Wichita Falls ISD also renovated classrooms and completed heating, ventilation and air-conditioning work at Kirby, which houses about 200 sixth-graders.

On Sept. 11, 2016, the district slated open houses so the public could see the results of the renovation.

Now that those redos are complete, the districts big-picture vision is coming into focus.

The plan is to funnel students through assigned attendance zones, not just to assure that campuses arent being overused or underused, but to hew to the concept of students in those zones remaining together throughout their public school years.

Also, campuses in the same attendance zone, particularly middle schools and their sister high school campuses, are collaborating more so that middle schoolers can make a smooth transition to high school.

A bearded dragon rests in the new Barwise Middle School sixth-grade science lab in this Sept. 11, 2016, file photograph. Barwise saw the addition of about 300 sixth-graders welcomed about 300 new sixth-graders and McNiel about 400 sixth-graders. A bond project completed in 2016 added accommodations to prepare for the influx.(Photo: Times Record News file)

While the middle schools did go through some growing pains at the beginning of the school year as they adjusted to the influx of hundreds of sixth-graders, everyone is back to school, settled in and back to the daily grind of reading, writing and rithmetic.

McNiel Middle School Principal Tania Rushing said in August 2016, What I see is a lot of excitement this year. You have a big crop of new, excited kids, and they are going to be together for a while. They are on a campus with people they know and a campus they know.

She was excited about new orchestra, band and choir rooms and about the renovated kitchens.

In the Barwise Middle School cafeteria, new and old meet. Beyond the green painted support beams is the new kitchen. Barwise and McNeil middle schools hosted open houses Sept. 11, 2016, so the community could see the changes to the schools paid for by a $59.5 million bond. About $25 million of that money was spent for junior high additions and renovations.(Photo: Lauren Roberts)

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WFISD completed $25M junior high renovations in 2016 - Times Record News