“It’s going to be a great year”

AZLE — Azle Junior High School started classes Wednesday, Aug. 14, welcoming some of the last students who will ever walk through the old campus’ doors.

The building on School Street was constructed in 1953, just seven years after the founding of the Azle Independent School District, and served as its high school until 1970, when the current high school on Boyd Road was completed. While the building contains over half a century of Azle history, today the original structure struggles to meet the needs of the nearly 700 students and staff who walk its halls.

Last November, Azle voters passed Proposition A, which allocates $151,500,000 to construction of a replacement Azle Junior High on the location of the existing campus, along with other district-wide needs. The proposed three-story facility will be built with an additional 200 sixth-grade students in mind and will include classrooms that meet Texas Education Association size requirements. The proposed structure will allow for more opportunities for advanced academics and extracurriculars, and will include a stage, storm shelter, larger science labs and much more, all contained under one roof. Construction began on Phase I last month and the new building is expected to be ready starting in the fall of 2026.

Many of his year’s new seventh and eighth graders were excited but nervous to walk these halls, either for the first time or again, for the start of a new school year. Junior high and Azle ISD staff greeted students on their way into the school, large parts of which are now fenced off for construction. Jessica Hanson, the district’s executive director of educational leadership, said the morning was going smoothly.

“It's always exciting to just welcome in the kids every year and see them smiling and their parents excited for the start of school,” Hanson said. “Their nerves, you know, are on high, but then they all look so cute in their new clothes and their new shoes, but the first day is always just so high energy and exciting. It's going to be a great year and a great, great day.”

After gathering in the gym, students parted ways and trekked across school grounds to make it to classes on separated portions of the campus.

“I hope I can pass again like I did last year,” Kayla Johnson, an eighth grader leading a group of seventh graders said. “I hope I can succeed in all the sports that I'm trying out in and get my Ironman award that I'm trying to go for. I just want to be, I guess, welcoming to all the new seventh graders.”