It is being called Elementary No. 5, but in the coming months, Cleveland ISD’s board of trustees will pick a name for a new campus that officially broke ground on Monday, Sept. 28. The new campus is located in Grand San Jacinto Subdivision, one of the Colony Ridge subdivisions south of Plum Grove in far southwest Liberty County.
The design for the new building uses Southside Elementary in Cleveland as a prototype, except that a second floor has been added to maximize the space. The building will have a footprint of 133,000 square feet with space for roughly 950 students in Pre-K through fifth grades. Grades Pre-K through second grade will be on the first floor while grades third through fifth will be on the second floor. The campus features a high-volume library centrally located on the first floor and a secure entrance vestibule.
Elementary No. 5 is being built on an 18.5-acre site that will have two elementary campuses and a middle school in the near future. The $29 million needed to build the campus comes from a $198 million bond approved by Cleveland ISD voters in November 2019.
The campus was designed by Huckabee and will be built by Pogue Construction. Lockwood, Andrews and Newman, Inc., is the construction manager for Cleveland ISD.
“We have five buildings in the planning phase right now,” said Cleveland ISD Superintendent Chris Trotter at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Since the project first kicked off a few weeks ago with site preparations, Trotter said he has received drone footage of the area that underscores just how quickly the community is growing.
“The first time I was sent a video, there were like 3-4 lots cleared for construction. The next week, there were about 14, the week after that there were about 28 and the last count a week ago Friday was 60,” said Trotter, adding that residents who live on those homesites will undoubtedly have children attending Cleveland ISD’s Elementary No. 5.
“If you take a look about a mile around us, that will be the attendance zone for this school. That’s how dense the population is going to be for this school. These children will have a neighborhood school and that’s a beautiful thing for this fast-growing population,” Trotter said. “As we continue to plan, this development will have approximately 26 elementary schools, 8-9 middle schools and 5-6 high schools. In total, there will be about a half-million people who will be in these neighborhoods.”
Construction of Elementary No. 5 is expected to be complete by June 2021 and the campus will be ready for students next fall.
For more information on Cleveland ISD, go online to https://www.clevelandisd.org/
Cleveland ISD Superintendent Chris Trotter welcomes guests to the ceremonial groundbreaking of Elementary No. 5 in the Grand San Jacinto Subdivision. The campus will be renamed by the board of trustees at a later date. 
The ceremonial shovels reflect all the parties involved in the construction of Cleveland ISD’s Elementary No. 5. 
The library inside of Cleveland ISD’s Elementary No. 5 will be the central feature to the campus. 
Crews start prep work on Cleveland ISD’s Elementary No. 5. 
Cleveland ISD Superintendent Chris Trotter, trustees Amanda Brooks and Aaron Montesnieto and Board President Chris Woods take their turns at the ceremonial dirt-turning on Monday.
all the people in this area claiming they are against immigration and yet they keep approving the raising of our taxes thru school bonds. They holler build the wall all the while they are building school houses for the immigrants. I personally don’t mind the immigrants but this areas double standards are amazing.
“there will be about a half-million people who will be in these neighborhoods.” Does this information come from a valid study? If so what company or organization conducted the study? When is the population of 500,000 projected to be reached? Population growth of this magnitude will require more infrastructure
than just schools. i.e. highways, law enforcement, etc.
I was thinking this too
no
The issue should have been taken care of by crooked politicians in Liberty County who allowed this development to begin with. Unfortunately, Trey Harris, the developer, has lined so many peoples pockets at this point the school district has no choice but to build new schools due to the overcrowding. This is no longer just a Cleveland ISD issue, it will happen in other surrounding districts as well.
Really this is all about money! The people building these subdivisions are paying hundreds of thousands for all this land. Your neighbors and friends are selling out and moving on!