It might not have an official name yet, but Cleveland ISD’s Elementary No. 5 now has a beam bearing the names of all the school board members and Superintendent Chris Trotter. On Monday night, during a meeting full of routine business, the board held a beam-signing event and named Claudia Thomas as the principal of the Elementary No. 5, which should be completed in June 2021.
With Cleveland ISD’s attendance now pushing 9,000 students, the campus will help the district accommodate the growth coming from the Colony Ridge communities. 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.
Superintendent Trotter told Bluebonnet News on Monday that he expects that Elementary No. 5 will be named by the board in January.
In other news from Monday night’s meeting, the Board recognized two staff members, Donhal Clark and Laderrington Baldwin. The two maintenance workers for Cleveland ISD recently rendered aid to a student after he suffered a head injury while playing football at Northside Elementary.
“Some fifth-grade boys were playing football. As boys often do, they were playing too physical. One boy was pushed out of bounds, hit the side of the building and cut his head open,” explained Northside Elementary Principal Pete Armstrong. “His teacher came running across the playground to provide aid. Two Cleveland ISD maintenance men happened to be making a delivery at our school. They saw the teacher rendering aid and ran to help her. One applied pressure to the wound while the other scooped the child up and took him inside to the school nurse.”
After receiving treatment with the school nurse, the child was transported to a local emergency room with Mr. Armstrong accompanying him. The child made a full recovery, Armstrong added.
“We thanked the two maintenance men last night at the school board meeting. Their job is to take care of our campus needs but they went above and beyond by helping to take care of our student. It just goes to show that Cleveland ISD employees really care about the kids,” said Armstrong.