On May 22, the Brentwood Elementary School community and Austin ISD celebrated the groundbreaking of the Brentwood modernization project. Below is a full recording of the virtual event and individual clips of Principal Amber Laroche breaking ground, a tour of the current Brentwood campus, and students sharing their favorite Brentwood memories and what they’re looking forward to the most at the new campus.
Brentwood Elementary School offers an arts-based educational program to students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school will receive a full modernization including a partial rebuild and partial renovation that will increase its permanent capacity to 696 students. During the construction of the modernized campus, the Brentwood school community will be temporarily relocated to the Webb Middle School campus.
While we wish we were able to hold this event in person, due to COVID-19 and campus closures, the district opted for a virtual event to ensure the school community was still able to celebrate the start of construction. The event was held virtually via Zoom webinar and featured remarks from Superintendent Dr. Paul Cruz, Board of Trustees President Geronimo Rodriguez, District 4 Trustee Kristin Ashy, Brentwood Principal Amber Laroche, Webb Principal Raul Sanchez, and former Brentwood Principal Katherine Williams-Carter.
The program for the event can be found here.
Follow along with the video using the closed captioning found here.
Watch the recording of the full event:
Brentwood Elementary School is a special place that means a lot to former and current students. Although we look forward to the modernized campus, the original campus will be missed by many. Check out the video tour below to get one last look at the original campus:
We asked students to submit photos sharing what they’re looking forward to the most at the new campus and some of their favorite memories from the original campus. Watch below:
In lieu of a physical gathering for the Brentwood modernization project groundbreaking, Principal Laroche visited the campus and broke ground on behalf of the school community. Students joined in on the fun by using household items (like crushed up Oreos) to simulate their own “groundbreaking” and by planting flowers at home that will eventually be transferred to the new campus. Check it out:
