HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSISD Celebrates 100 Years
CSISD Celebrates abou own
100 Years
By REBECCA WATTS P R E S S
everyone's local news magazine
MAY 20091 VOL. 3 ISSUE 5
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ollege Station Independent School
District turns 100 years old this year.
The district will be celebrating with
"100 Years of Class" on May 13th beginning at 6
p.m. in the auditorium at A&M Consolidated High
School
College Station ISD Superintendent Eddie Coulson
said, "As a school district it's a great feeling to be
100 years old and to recognize the number of
students that the district has impacted over this
many years."
Ann Ganter, Director of Public Relations and
the Education Foundation, said the event will be
divided by campuses rather than decades. She is
hoping participants will bring any memorabilia
they have. The event will be a "come and go"
event and Ganter hopes attendees will stay and
share their memories of their time in school.
"I expect that we will have a lot of community
members that will be coming through reminiscing
and reflecting on CSISD and what it means to them
and the community," Coulson said.
College Station ISD is comprised of six elementary
schools (with a seventh to open in the Fall), two
intermediate schools, two middles schools, and one
high school. CSISD now boasts a total enrollment
of 9,504 students as of September 1, 2008.
"We've grown tremendously over the last hundred
years and really growing now over the past several
years," Coulson said.
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College Station continued from cover
The number of facilities and students enrolled for the 2008-2009 school year is in stark contrast to the
districts beginnings. In the first year of operation, the district reported 304 students. Extracurricular
activities included athletics and drama. The drama club held performances throughout the state to
raise money for a library and by the second year in operation, the districts library exceeded that of
any rural districts in the area. Students were required to take English, American History, and Civics;
other subjects such as agricultural mathematics, composition, science, and practice were taught as
well. According to an article written in The Battalion in 1945 by W.D. Bunting and W.L. Hughes,
one of the district's "finest assets at the school was in home economics department. Girls were taught
the essentials in homemaking in all its various aspects."
The Texas State Legislature chartered CSISD in 1909, but it was not a tax-supported district until
11 years later. College Station residents sent their children to the Bryan campus until 1920 when
then Texas A&M University President, W.B. Bizzel, and Martin L. Hayes, head of the Department
of Vocational Teaching convinced the State Board of Education to provide a grant to establish a
' rural school on the Texas A&M campus. The funding was provided as long as the district provided
the means for Texas A&M teaching students to practice teaching agriculture. The district was
appropriated 3,500 acres of land on the Texas A&M University campus by the Texas Legislature
and a school board was created.
i In 1928, the districts of Union Hill, Wellborn, Rock Prairie, Shiloh Common, and A&M College
Independent School Districts combined to form the A&M Consolidated ISD. The A&M Consolidated
ISD campus was housed on the campus of Texas A&M University until 1939, when sixteen private
i citizens purchased 15-acres of land and donated it to the school district. For several years, the district
' was consolidated under a "gentleman's agreement," with no legal basis as a consolidated district. In
1949, the Peach Creek and Minor Springs Common School Districts were added as well.
As the idea of a vocational school for Texas A&M teachers slipped away, so did state appropriations.
The district struggled financially until the tax base in College Station grew large enough to support
the district. n
The College Station ISD Board of Trustees called for a bond election in the amount of
$144,200,000 to be held on May 9, 2009.
What is in this bond package?
1. Construction of a new elementary school.
2. Construction of phase one of a second high school. Phase one will include core space for 2,400
and classroom space for 1,800 students. Also planned are a 450 seat auditorium and a 4,300
seat athletic stadium.
3. Construction of a Transportation Center.
4. Capital projects including:
• Renovations to current buildings including A&M Consolidated High School.
• Bus purchases
May 2009 I abou ownPRESS.COM I Page 4
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A complete history of CSISD can be found at the City of College Station's
Historic Preservation's Project HOLD website, www.hold.cstx.gov.
For more information on "100 Years of Class," contact (979) 764-5422.
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