In every ending there is a new beginning, and there’s no better application of the classic proverb than the upcoming closure of Rider, Old High and Hirschi and opening of Memorial and Legacy.
Cody Blair, who was named Legacy principal, has been working hard to manage juggling the ending of Rider and new beginning of Legacy.
“Still really honored to be a part of the Legacy and Memorial opening, especially Legacy, very excited and looking forward to it, but I’m also trying to stay involved and engaged here with the last year of Rider,” Blair said. “I’m trying to keep being present with everyone and enjoying all these moments and this time together.”
Several new school positions have been named, and among the Rider staff many are taking the jump with Blair to Legacy, including three of the four assistant principals and the same ratio of counselors.
“I’m excited about so many Rider admins coming with me to Legacy, sad that we can’t all go to the same place, and that’s with everybody,” Blair said. “I wish we could just pick up everyone I work with here and bring them with me.”
One of those Rider staff assigned to Legacy is Loy Studer, who will be the head band and orchestra director at the new high school. He’s working to make the new music fit just right.
“We’re doing a lot of the fight song and alma mater and that stuff, and that’s important because the band is the soundtrack of the school,” Studer said. “You go to Disney World and there’s always a soundtrack going on, and it’s important to the way you feel, so it’s important that we get that kind of stuff right, which is hard to know what that is right now.”
While there are aspects of opening a new school that are difficult, Blair is excited and ready for the challenge.
“The daunting things are also the things that are exciting about it,” Blair said. “It’s such a great challenge, putting together the right team of staff that are all pointing in the same direction and rowing and pulling together so that we can do great things for kids and create this great school. It’s also going to be fun putting that team together. Another piece of that is the culture of the school. I love building and enhancing culture, and putting a team together that can do that.”
Superintendent Donny Lee is in his second year leading Wichita Falls ISD, and he’s excited about the enormous task at hand.
“I like different challenges and I like what you can do with new things, and so since I’ve taken the job about a year and a half ago, there has been so much to do and some many exciting initiatives,” Lee said. “It’s made my job not only challenging and exciting, but it has flown by. To open up two new schools as I come in is really awesome and I’m excited about it.”
To Lee, the school is more than just the building itself, but also the sense of spirit inside of it.
“It excites me that all of our students are going to be able to create new traditions, and have the opportunity to build a new future,” Lee said. “Not just looking backwards at a legacy but looking forward and creating traditions. Like now we have Berkley Breakfast, but what will it be there? Like pep rallies and dances and new school songs, all of those things, it’s exciting to me that students will get to set the groundwork for 100 years to come, because that’s the lifespan of the building, 100 years.”
Studer, who is a veteran of opening new schools, knows full well the challenge that comes with building a new school culture from the ground up.
“The biggest thing with creating new schools is to establish culture, since we have three schools merging into two, everyone has different backgrounds, so we’re going to spend a lot of time focusing on building the school,” Studer said. “The actual building of a school, this is my third new school I’ve been at since opening, is the easiest part. The school culture part is what’s hard.”
Newness is both exciting and daunting, while everyone has their ideas of how things will unfold, nothing new can be truly understood until experienced.
“I think the biggest adjustment, not just for the students but also the staff, families, parents and school communities is it’s going to be Day One brand new for all of us,” Blair said. “There’s none of us who’ve done it before, none of us who know exactly what it will look like. We’ve all got ideas, and we’re going to plan and work really hard to make it good.”
With new schools comes new rules, and it will take hard work and determination to ensure that the new staff is together and working as a team.
“Because everything’s new, something to focus on is the communication piece, constantly repeating how we do things, what the procedure is and what we do for this or that,” Blair said. “You’re taking people from three different high schools and putting them all in the same place. It’s about getting everyone on the same page.”
Despite the challenges there’s much to look forward to, including the infrastructural improvements that come with modern technologies.
“It’s cold outside, so it’s freezing inside, it’s onion season so you have to dress in layers,” Studer said. “I’m really excited about being part of the new building and having a facility that’s up to date, kids are kids and this will be fun. Having a nice facility with modern air conditioning will be nice to have.”
Besides new heaters, the schools boast a newness that no other schools in the area do.
“These are brand new state of the art facilities that you can’t find anywhere around here, nowhere in this area, you have to go to Dallas or Fort Worth or even Prosper to find anything like this,” Lee said. “They’re built with students in mind, there’s a lot of flexibility in these buildings and so it’s going to have almost like a college feel in these new high schools. We can’t wait for our students and our teachers to get inside of them next year.”
The schools are on track to be finished by spring, and then furniture will begin to be moved in, another major hurdle for having the schools student-ready for next school year.
