NEISD in the 2004-2005 School Year will celebrate our 50th Anniversary!
Tucked away and forgotten in attics are pieces of a historical puzzle waiting to complete the history of the North East Independent School District (see photos below).
The 50th Anniversary Committee, headed by Twain Tharp, is seeking former students and planning commemorative events, it is also gathering old photographs, videotaping veteran residents, receiving yearbooks and other memorabilia for a celebration that will launch the next 50 years.
"We want the residents of North East to share their history and memories with
us," said Superintendent Richard A. Middleton, himself a graduate of the second
high school built in North East.
North East celebrates 50 years as an independent school district on March 4, 2005.
People interested in donating photos or yearbooks, or simply sharing them for duplication, can contact Tharp, the district's executive director of special programs at (210) 804-7130.
Laura Calderon, executive director of communication services, said that the district is videotaping veteran residents who may shed some light on questions regarding the district's history.
"We have already interviewed the Bartholomews who built a house in 1949 out in the middle of nowhere ? on Jones-Maltsberger between Thousand Oaks and Redland Oaks." Calderon said.
"The Bartholomews told us where North East students attended high school before we had a high school," she said. "And they shared with us how students had to get off school buses so that the buses could struggle up steep hills, then get back on to continue the ride."
While North East transformed from the North East Rural School District to the North East Independent School District in 1955, it's history goes back to the Battle of San Jacinto when John Coker suggested that a strategic bridge be destroyed.
The bridge was destroyed; the battle won and as a reward for the victory, Coker received land, some of which is now the intersection of U.S. Highway 281 and Nakoma Road. On that land, he and his brothers built a church, a school and a cemetery.
A photo of a two-story building dated 1904 exists, as does another photo of a Coker school that followed, dated 1925. The current Coker incarnation stands at Heimer Road and Perennial Street and is the oldest, existing campus in the district.
In addition to the Coker schoolhouse, six other schoolhouses existed and each was considered it's own "common" school district. They were Seay, Salado Creek, Blanco, Lookout Valley, Olmos and Serna.
"We are hopeful that veteran residents of our district can tell us where these schoolhouses stood and share photos of the schools and its students," Middleton said.
For more information call Tharp at 804-7130 or Calderon at 804-7090.
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