Donna ISD strengthening early childhood education with school expansions

DONNA — The district here is furthering its investment into early childhood development with groundbreakings Tuesday for additional classrooms wings at three elementary campuses.

The wing expansions are part of the district’s $120 million bond that passed in May 2023.

The projects are to accommodate the anticipated growth on the district’s north side and doubling down on early childhood education with the success of their M. Rivas Primary Discovery Academy which won the H-E-B Excellence in Education Early Childhood Award this year.

Starting the back-to-back-to-back groundbreakings on Tuesday at Salazar Elementary, the Donna ISD Superintendent Angela Dominguez and school board were in attendance.

Additional wings are expected to be added onto Garza and Singleterry elementaries.

Referring to their award-winning academy and their specialized classrooms for traditional and hands-on learning, Dominguez said the projects are going to extend those innovative spaces to the three elementaries.

“For our students and across the state of Texas, research really shows that early childhood development really helps students in poverty,” she said following the groundbreaking. “Donna ISD is a district where we serve a lot of students that struggle economically, but they are super talented students, and our families deserve the very best.”

Each wing is expected to be approximately 17,500 square feet and comes at a cost of about $6 million each.

The new wings add 10 additional classrooms to the elementary schools with a focus on Pre-K, kindergarten and special education.

“A foundation that starts with three and four year old learning really prepares our students to graduate on time, ready for college, careers or the military and so we believe that an early start and a good foundation will make all the difference for our kids and our community,” Dominguez said.

Salazar Elementary Principal Janie Alaniz gave The Monitor a look at how the proposed additional wing will look like at her campus.

The wing will have a single corridor with classrooms on each side. The new facility will have six Pre-K classrooms, three discovery classrooms, one classroom for special education along with a conference room and a workroom.

“It’s very exciting because these classrooms are the new, innovative way to work with our early childhood students and of course, our early childhood students are the precursor to our future,” Alaniz said. “We can excite them with their education and make them want to be here in school … We do have one elementary that has this already. So being able to have those same resources for our kiddos, of course, we’re very excited for them.”

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The elementary school currently has about 120 Pre-K and kindergarten students. The additional wing to the campus will serve about 100-plus students, she said.

“All those teachers are very excited because they’re going to go into the new wing and it’s just going to be beautiful,” Alaniz said.

She added the investment into early childhood education is possible through the superintendents, the board and the communities vision and passion for education.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated for clarity.