BELTON, Texas — Elementary students in Belton are starting the new year off right with the gift of a new campus.
James L. Burrell Elementary School — that’s where 400 students are starting their spring semester and they’re all excited.
For fifth grader Jude Sutton, it’s a fun but hard transition.
“What made it hard for you to go from that school to this school? Is it just how long you were there?” asked 25 News' Adam Schindler.
”Yes,” Sutton said.
“It’s just that I had gotten used to the school and I had a a lot of other friends over there.”
He is making new friends, like fourth grader Collyn Adams.
She loves the new Library.
”I have only two things that I really like,” Adams said.
“The library because they have so many books, and I love reading, and also the adults because they get to help us learn.”
They’re not just getting a new school, but the students got to have a little input on design elements from grade specific restrooms in their own pods, to a way more own concept library located in the middle of the school, to new collaborative areas located outside the classroom, because the students said they wanted more room.
It’s not just the kiddos that are excited, but the staff is too.
For the principal Julee Manley, it’s the added security.
”I think the biggest is the secure vestibule,” Manley said.
“When they come into the building, they are never entering our school unless they are buzzed in, so that has been the number one.”
Like Collyn Adams, Harper Renner is a military dependent and used to changing schools, but she has a message for soldier dad after coming to this one.
”Thanks dad for picking out this place for us to live,” Renner said.
“I really like it.”
The new school was funded through their 2022 bond election.
The need for a new school came with increased enrollment leading to overcrowding.
Manely said she feels extra safe on this campus and the staff is happy for the noise of an overcrowded school to be cut down a little bit.
