Sep 25, 2024, 15:57
by
Lamar CISD Communications
September 25, 2024 – Rosenberg, Texas – Lamar CISD celebrated the opening of Terrell Elementary School during a ribbon-cutting ceremony held Thursday, Sept. 19 – officially welcoming a third new elementary campus this month for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The new campus honors Bernard Clifton Terrell Jr., who was born in 1931 in Waco and studied marketing and economics at Baylor University before serving in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. After the war, Terrell spent much of the rest of his life dedicated to supporting Texas’ economic growth and development, including more than 20 years spent serving with the Rosenberg-Richmond Area Chamber of Commerce as well as work with the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, among many other organizations.
The Terrell Elementary Koalas have made their new home near the fast-growing Candela community in Richmond, Texas, where demand for expanded campus capacity is so great that a completed portion of the new school was used last year to house sixth graders as part of an initiative to alleviate overcrowding at nearby campuses.
“Individuals like Clifton Terrell Jr. helped lay the foundation for the incredible growth Lamar CISD and Fort Bend County as a whole are experiencing today, including the hypergrowth we’re seeing here in our district,” Lamar CISD Superintendent Dr. Roosevelt Nivens said.
“Mr. Terrell was a valued member of the community and the kind of person who served others first, with humility and generosity of spirit,” Nivens added. “We’re proud that the legacy of his achievements and contributions to Richmond and Fort Bend County will live on and inspire our young people here at the school that now bears his name.”
Leading the new campus is Terrell Principal Janice Harvey, who brings more than 30 years of experience in education, including seven years as an assistant principal and eight years as a campus principal. During her two decades in Lamar CISD, she most recently served as principal of Austin Elementary.
“I’m honored to be able to work at a school with such a prominent namesake as Mr. Terrell,” Principal Harvey said. “It’s really an incredible feeling to be able to open a new campus, when you can pull together amazing people that you’ve worked with previously and put them all under one roof. It just makes it special.”
Among those representing the namesake family was Mr. Terrell’s wife, Roberta Terrell, who said that education was extremely important to her late husband, and that she hoped students at the campus would be inspired by his integrity, honesty, and commitment to the community.
“It’s such an honor,” she said of the naming. “I think he would love seeing this school and all these students learning here. He would love this.”
Also on hand was Mr. Terrell’s daughter, Tyanne Terrell, who spoke to attendees during the ribbon-cutting ceremony on behalf of herself and fellow family members.
“I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone for being here today and supporting Terrell Elementary to make it a reality,” she said. “We cannot wait to see the contributions it will bring to the community and to future generations of students.”
To view pictures, please click HERE.