WFISD takes official action to send students to the new high schools

Trish Choate, Wichita Falls Times Record News
·2 min read
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A still shot taken from September drone footage of construction at Legacy High School.
A still shot taken from September drone footage of construction at Legacy High School.

Wichita Falls ISD took official action this week to consolidate Hirschi, Old High and Rider into the new high schools, paving the way to send students to Legacy and Memorial high schools for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Legacy and Memorial are expected to be built and ready to receive students in August 2024, bringing a cascade of facility changes to the district.

“They haven’t officially voted on it yet, but that's the initial plans is that Rider, Wichita Falls High School and Hirschi High School will all be middle schools," Dr. Donny Lee, WFISD superintendent, said during a break from a School Board meeting Monday.

Trustees voted 5-0 to approve consolidating the current high schools into Legacy and Memorial in 2024-2025 on Monday evening as part of the consent agenda. District 1 Trustee Susan Grisel and District 3 Trustee Mark Lukert were not at the meeting.

More: WFISD names principals for new high schools

Legacy is projected to have about 1,940 students, and Memorial is projected to have about 1,600, Lee said during his superintendent's report at the meeting.

The district is following Texas Association of School Board recommendations for staffing. So Legacy will have five assistant principals, and Memorial will have four, Lee said.

The Legacy assistant principals will be:

  • Dr. Troy Ferris, now assistant principal at Rider

  • Dr. Shannon Cunningham, now in that role at Rider

  • Tami Davis, assistant principal at Old High

  • Nicholas Mims, assistant principal at Hirschi

  • Brittany Bailey, assistant principal at Wichita Falls High School

The secretary at Legacy will be Jessica Garcia.

More: WFISD poised to close Kirby, future of another campus up in the air for now

At Memorial, the assistant principals will be:

  • Patrick Moore, now in that role at WFHS

  • Misty Speer, assistant principal at Old High

  • Michael Forney, Rider assistant principal

  • Kim Stutz, Hirschi associate principal

The secretary at Memorial will be Emily Espinoza.

Also on Monday, Trustees approved closing Harrell Alternative Center for the rest of this school year because of storm damage to that campus and sending those students to the newly dubbed Farris Alternative Center.

They also voted to consolidate Kirby Middle School into the Hirschi campus, which will be given a facelift in its transformation into a middle school.

Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: WFISD takes official action to send students to new high schools