CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Wednesday marked the last day of school for thousands of students in the Corpus Christi Independent School District, but it also marks a new beginning for one school in the district.
Students and staff at Windsor Park Elementary School not only said goodbye to their friends for the summer but also to the campus they have called home for the last two years. Staff have been packing up their things and getting ready for the big move to a new campus.
For the last two years, the 600 students at the gifted and talented magnet school have called the old Calk Elementary School near Gollihar home. The old Windsor Park Elementary School on Alameda was torn down to make way for a new $21 million campus.
"We've been so fortunate to be in this building and have a great place for two years," Principal Kimberly Bissell said. "Always sad for the last day, even though we are going to a beautiful new facility. This neighborhood has been very good to us."
The new campus was approved by voters back in 2014.
Bissell has been principal at Windsor Park for nine years and is eagerly awaiting to return in the fall.
"It started in earnest. We all can't wait to get our toes wet in the water at the new building," Bissell said.
Student Will Harris will have a new place to hang his backpack for 5th grade.
"I'm excited because it's a whole new campus," Harris said. "No one has ever been there. It's clean, and it will all be brand new."
There are still many preparations underway, from boxing dozens of trophies to hundreds of books.
"Thank God for volunteers," Librarian Annelise Rodriguez said. "Our parents have been phenomenal. Parents have been helping us like gangbusters."
The official start of the next school year in CCISD is Aug. 24.