In May 2022, our community came together and voted for White Settlement ISD to receive a $155 million bond package that was put together by a Long Range Facilities Planning Committee that consisted of different demographics in White Settlement. This money has been put towards renovating and adding to our campuses as well as building new ones to better support the students at WSISD. The bond is split into three separate phases, with phase one happening now. This phase includes construction at West Elementary, Brewer Middle School and Brewer High School.
Another major part of the bond for BMS is the gyms. A new competition gym for sixth grade and middle school is being built to fit those who come out to home games. The current practice gym is being demolished to make room for the cafetorium. The new practice gym will be located on Gibbs Street, adjacent to the sixth-grade center.
“The older gym was small and did not accommodate the amount of fans we have been experiencing over the last decade,” Summerhill said.
The newest campus of WSISD will be the Sixth-Grade Center. It will be three
West Elementary received $20.8 million to renovate the campus and add new classrooms to realign elementary grades in WSISD. The campus has been renamed to West Early Learners Academy and has new grade alignments.
“West Early Learners Academy now serves all prekindergarten and kindergarten students in our district. First through fifth-grade students are now served at North, Blue Haze and Liberty Elementary and Fine Arts Academy serves students in first through sixth grades,” Principal Chelsea LaPlante said. “We currently have around 40 students in early childhood special education, 250 in pre-kindergarten and 450 in kindergarten.”
stories with science labs, common spaces and a library and workspace for the staff.
It is important to have a space for sixth graders and their own wing because there is a big difference in maturity and age,” Summerhill said. “This will allow us to transition those students slowly into seventh grade as opposed to just starting the first day they arrive.”
Here at Brewer High School, our campus received $15.6 million for fine arts renovations and to expand the competition gym. Even within the first few weeks of school, students are already reaping the benefits. The earliest group to use one of the new facilities was the band back in July.
With the growth in student numbers, additional classrooms were required. A new building featuring 18 kindergarten classrooms and a cafeteria with a capacity of 400 people was included in the bond.
“Allowing our building to focus on early childhood has given us the opportunity to design spaces and programs that are developmentally appropriate for the students,” LaPlante said. “This will lead to strong foundations in early literacy and early math as well as social and emotional development.”
“In the old band hall, the band did not have any space to spread out or set up our instruments and equipment since there were a lot of people in the band,” Drum Major Daniel Rodriguez said. “There was little room to fit us all in and it affected our comfortability, cleanliness and sound.”
The new band hall is very spacious and supports the sound of the band. The new rubber flooring has yard lines so students can practice their marching and color guard members can work on their choreography.
Ribbon cutting ceremony at West Early Learners Academy Photo credits: White Settlement ISD
Brewer High School Fightin' Bear Band at band hall ribbon cutting ceremony Photo credits: White Settlement ISD
Brewer Middle School’s portion of the bond includes $55.6 million for renovations and additions to the campus including a new sixth-grade center. In the 2025-2026 school year, sixth graders will attend BMS and Tannahill Intermediate will become Tannahill Fine Arts Academy (current Fine Arts Academy will be a special programs facility).
“BMS has received new office and entrance space which we just moved into a month ago. It is aesthetically pleasing and up to date,” Principal Randy Summerhill said. “Soon, we will be moving into our new cafeteria, gym, sixth-grade center, and fine arts band hall!”
In addition to the fine arts renovations, the drill team gym received new flooring.
“There were spaces between the wood on our floor where things would get caught, snagged, broken, or even cut up our feet,” Honeycomb Social Officer Anabella Elizondo said. “The new flooring doesn’t make us worry about getting hurt. Our new gym floor also has our saying ‘strong in numbers and tradition’ and our establishment date. It felt good to step in a gym with a new floor since we’ve been starting from scratch with two new coaches. It was like a complete fresh start.”
An addition that the entire student body can enjoy is the new is the new
The most important part of the BMS portion of the bond might be the new cafetorium (a cafeteria with a stage). It will be able to hold 2,000 people which allows the middle school to feed students in two lunches instead of four.
“With our new stage, we don’t have to rely on other campuses to host our families during special events,” Summerhill said. “The cafetorium is going to be a clean, spacious environment for students to eat and socialize during the day and perform for families and community at night.”
“Our new competition gym is way more spacious than it was,” Color Guard Co-Captain Evelyn Quesada said. “The whole school can come to the pep rallies now which makes our school spirit stronger. The attendance at home games will be higher too.”
The new bond has already proven to be successful in better accommodating the students at WSISD. None of this would be possible without our supportive community and parents who voted in favor of the bond. It is a statement made that they believe in us and our futures. Although WSISD has already received so much, there is still more construction going on; further additions are expected to be completed by the Spring of 2025.