JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
A Sept. 17 groundbreaking ceremony heralded a new chapter for a school that has served Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph for more than six decades.
Following a construction project that is expected to be finished in time for the 2021-22 school year, Randolph Elementary School will have a new $15.5 million multipurpose facility that will include classrooms for grades 2-5, administrative offices, a library/media center and a cafeteria.
Randolph Field Independent School District board members and administrators, as well as Randolph Elementary School staff members and teachers, joined representatives of the project’s construction and design teams in celebrating the beginning of the facility’s building phase.
“This project is exciting, as our beautiful old building was definitely showing its age,” said Dr. Allanna Hemenway, Randolph Elementary School principal. “We are moving our students from a 1952 building to a building pre-wired with the technology infrastructure and larger spaces that our students deserve. While we will miss the beauty of our old building, we are so excited to have a campus that is ready to meet all our students’ needs.”
Dr. Brian Holt, who is beginning his first school year as RFISD superintendent, discussed the new 56,000-square-foot building’s unique features.
“We will be changing to an outside access facility with the addition of indoor courtyards,” he said. “A state-of-the-art cafeteria will be added along with a spacious open-concept library. Technology will also be upgraded to current standards with the ability to upgrade in the future.”
The new building will provide students with a safe learning environment, Hemenway said.
“The new campus will be more secure as students will have interior hallways to move from class to class,” she said. “They will no longer have to dart in the rain to reach a different classroom.”
The old elementary school was razed this summer, but some structures will remain, including the administration building that faces Harmon Drive, the gym, the early childhood center that serves pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade students, and the cafeteria, which will be home to the school’s music classroom as well as a working auditorium for student and other performances.
During the construction phase, students in grades 2-5 will attend classes in two large portable buildings that have been placed on campus. In-person classroom instruction will begin Sept. 21 with extensive COVID-19 health safety and sanitation measures in place.
The improvements to the elementary school are the final pieces in a district facilities plan that began in the 2015-16 school year, Holt said.
“Our students will have a new modern facility that should meet their educational needs for the next several decades,” he said.