Three new schools welcomed to the Northside family
NISD Communications Department
November 16, 2007
Two beloved educators and a history-making alumnus of Jay High School were recently honored as namesakes for three new schools that opened for the 2007-08 school year.
Wallace B. Jefferson Middle School, Rita Kay Driggers Elementary School, and Julia Newton Aue Elementary School recently held dedication ceremonies to pay tribute to their namesakes. Hundreds of people attended each dedication, which featured student performances as well as an exchange of special gifts between the schools and namesakes.
“It is such a thrill to be able to honor these exemplary individuals by naming a school after them,” Superintendent John Folks said. “They will serve as wonderful role models to many students for years to come.”
Wallace B. Jefferson, a 1981 graduate of Jay High School, was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in 2001 at the age of 37, making him the first African American and one of the youngest justices to serve on the state’s top judicial panel. He was elected to the seat in 2002, and in 2004, he made history again when the governor appointed him to chief justice. Justice Jefferson is the youngest namesake in Northside as well as the first Northside alumnus to serve as a namesake for a middle school.
Rita Kay Driggers served as a school librarian in Northside for 20 years. Driggers joined the District in 1980 and sparked a love of reading in hundreds of children at five different elementary schools in Northside. During her tenure at Northside, she was named Educator of the Year at three different elementary schools. She retired in 2001, and is the first librarian to have a school named in her honor in Northside.
Julia Newton Aue Elementary School pays homage to a dedicated educator as well as her pioneering family, which played a pivotal role in the development of the Leon Springs community. Aue, who passed away in 1995, taught in Northside elementary schools for 20 years before she retired as a special education teacher in 1978.
Next year, Northside will open five new schools, making it the first time in history the District has opened that many schools in one year. The schools opening for the 2008-09 school year are: Brandeis High School, Vale Middle School, and Carnahan, Forester, and Scarborough elementary schools.
Northside ISD must open at least 200 new classrooms every year because enrollment, now at 85,546, is growing by about 4,000 students a year. Earlier this year, voters approved School Bond 2007, which will fund 12 new schools plus renovations and expansions at campuses throughout the District.
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