Seguin ISD celebrates the start of construction of NEW McQueeney Elementary School

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
Cindy Aguirre

(Seguin) — The construction of the new McQueeney Elementary School is well on its way. Despite the official groundbreaking Friday morning, district officials say they are amazed by the huge progress already being made with the new second story school being built at 6625 FM 725.

The new campus will sit just two miles northwest of the current school, on land purchased during the 2019 bond package.

The actual green light for the district to replace one of the district’s oldest campuses and begin the steps toward construction of the district’s first second story elementary school was granted by voters three years later in 2022.

McQueeney administrators and teachers were among those on hand for the groundbreaking.

Each was excited to be standing on the future campus site and seeing their future classrooms come together.

Assistant Principal Sharon Johnson says she feels fortunate to have been a part of the planning process with architects and is finally thrilled to see things moving.

“It’s extremely important. Our population is just growing like crazy. We need more space, and we need the resources for our kids. We need the outdoor centers. We need the outdoor equipment, and we need new equipment. We need new furniture so what that means to me is we are doing what we need to do,” said Johnson. “Our kids deserve this. Our teachers deserve this.”

Veteran Kindergarten Teacher Adriana Moreno says while she has enjoyed her 15 plus years at the current McQueeney campus, she can’t wait to carry over that love into a new school.

“We are so excited and so thankful that this passed in the bond to be able to build a new school. It’s super exciting. I hope to be around. I love McQueeney. I love the families. I love my co-workers and it’s my home,” said Moreno. “What is super exciting is they say it will have the capacity to hold up to 700 students. Right now, I believe we only have about 300 so just welcoming our families and students into the building will be great.’

Among those speaking on behalf of the project was Robyn Popa, of Pfluger Architects. Pfluger serves as the consultant to pbGroup LLC which is responsible for overseeing the final blueprint for the elementary school project.

Popa says the 99,000 square foot building will in fact hold approximately 850 students. She says the second story option was not just about design but also about efficiency and cost savings.

“I wouldn’t even call it a trend anymore but just a wise investment of funds because land is getting more and more expensive and it’s harder and harder to find sizable tracts of land to be able to have the luxury — of a kind of sprawling one story elementary school — that coupled with the fact that building efficiency as far as utilities and stuff, it’s more economic to be able to have larger elementary schools because of the utilities that go into maintaining and operating those facilities. So, we are seeing elementary schools can be anywhere between 500 and 800 students but there is a tendency to look at a two-story option more consistently because of the land usage,” said Popa.

Popa adds that the new school will feature larger classrooms, collaborative space for each grade level, and several secured outdoor learning spaces.

“I think the fact that the district really placed a high priority on collaborative spaces and outdoor spaces that are secured — for those students — I think it’s going to be a game changer for them. It’s very similar to some of the spaces that were created over at the remodel of AJB where the classes open up to like a common area. That allows teachers and students to be able to get out of the classroom and work in small groups. It allows teachers to co-teach and it just gives a really great opportunity to think a little bit differently about how education is delivered nowadays,” said Popa.

The design’s larger pick-up and drop-off area for the new school will also provide additional safety for students and traffic relief along FM 725.

Meanwhile, the new elementary school is not the only bond project pbGroup is currently handling for the district. Florin Popa, of pbGroup, says other projects in the works include the renovation at Barnes Middle School, the expansion of the transportation facility, the construction of the Agri-Science facility, the baseball and softball complex plus the district’s safety and security project.

Overseeing the construction of the new building is Nunnelly General Contractor.

The new school is expected to be completed in the fall of 2026.

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