Collinsville ISD school board members gathered at Collinsville Elementary School last Friday to commemorate the groundbreaking for the new addition to the school.
Wearing hard hats and holding golden shovels, CISD trustees ceremoniously dug dirt and tossed it onto the construction site of the new addition, marking the beginning of the construction for this project.
“This addition has been a long time coming,” CISD Superintendent Matthew Davenport said. “We started last summer with our planning. We passed the bond in November and this whole last eight months have been spent planning, doing design and schematic work, replatting and getting the city to get us all the permits. For this day to finally get here, it feels good.”
Collinsville ISD has grown over the last year and a half. According to Davenport, district enrollment is up 10 percent over where it was two years ago. While this addition will replace an 80-year-old building that was experiencing some major plumbing and infrastructure problems, it’s the first step in preparing for the growth coming to Collinsville.
In the summer of 2022, CISD began looking at solutions for the future. The original plan was to build a new school, however, the district quickly realized they didn’t have the tax base to support a $20-$30 million new build.
By building an addition to the current elementary school, the district felt it was a way they could start small and serve as a first step toward improvements for the future.
The following summer, the district met with community members to assess perceived needs in the district. The elementary school was a top priority, and an addition seemed to be the most economical way to meet that need.
“In our current school, we’re sitting in three sections of each grade, with each section at 50 kids. For the future, this new addition could hold us to about 65 kids at each grade level through fifth grade,” Davenport said. “If that happens, then we reassess fifth and sixth grade. It’s all part of our plan moving forward.”
The addition will include six regular classrooms, a 1,000 square-foot art classroom, a 1,000 square-foot music classroom with space for instrument storage, new office space and a new conference room.
“We’re tight on space as it is, so we’re really looking forward to [the addition],” Davenport said.
School Board President Carrie Crane was excited to be part of the groundbreaking and is eager for the project to begin.
“I’m excited that the students will have more room, that we’re prepared for the impending growth, and the teachers and students will have the best facilities. They deserve that,” Crane said.
Despite the fact that the school district had to call for a bond to help pay for the addition, Crane feels the community has been supportive and understanding of the need for the build.
“At the end of the day, this was the best decision for the kids and our community. In our economy, there’s never an easy route, but I feel like this is an investment in our future. It was a necessary expense,” Crane said.
For board trustee Ryan Patterson, this project is a little more personal. Patterson has at least one child who will be attending the elementary school when the new addition opens.
“It’s needed. We’re running out of space. As the growth comes to this area, we have to be prepared. Right now, we have students in temporary trailers. Having this new building will allow them to have a nice facility that they can be proud of,” Patterson said.
The new addition is expected to be open in time for the fall of the 2026 school year.
