Campus Restructuring

Two Waco Middle Schools to Run on One Campus After Fire

• By Matt Jones
• 08/09/21

Waco ISD in Waco, Texas, has announced that students from two of its middle schools will combine onto a single campus after a fire destroyed one of its facilities in July. About 460 students from G.W. Carver Middle School, which suffered severe fire damage on July 27, will move to Indian Spring Middle School for the coming school year. The district is partnering with nonprofit organization Transformation Waco to work out the logistics of the move.

“Indian Spring has the capacity for roughly over 900 students, and that is pretty close to the Carver and Indian Spring population,” said Robin McDurham, Ed.D., Transformation Waco CEO. “We’re working with each department to maximize the partnership and look at what we can do to work this out the best for our families.”

As the new school year starts Aug. 23, officials and administrators are working overtime to merge the two schools’ student bodies. Indian Spring Middle School will run as a single school instead of two schools out of a single building. Students will attend classes together, and two certified faculty members will co-teach each class. Breakfast and lunch will be served across four lunch periods. The school will feature one band, one choir, one theater, one set of athletics practices, and one after-school education program.

A plan to consolidate the two middle schools had already been part of a long-term facilities plan proposed at a June 10 school board meeting. At an upcoming school board meeting on Aug. 12, trustees are scheduled to consider a bond package and scheduling changes that could result in a new G.W. Carver Middle School facility opening in time for the 2023–24 school year. Superintendent Susan Kincannon said she plans to recommend that the board approve a $376-million bond issue in November that would cover four new schools and set off the design and planning of a new Carver Middle School.

The bond issue also includes plans for the construction of a new Waco High School, new Carver and Tennyson Middle Schools, a new Kendrick Elementary School, and renovations to South Waco Elementary School. If trustees approve calling a bond election at this week’s meeting, planning for a new Carver Middle School could begin as soon as next month.

“It’s an ambitious two-year timeline…I think we will make it work for this school year and next year,” Kincannon said.