WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - Legacy and Memorial High Schools opened their doors on Aug. 15, 2024. Now, nine months later, they are set to wrap up their first year next week on May 21.

Donny Lee, Superintendent for WFISD, said the pair of schools have done just what they were intended to do in their inaugural years.

“[We wanted to] bring a sense of pride to the city and district. [As well as a] renewed hope and focus. I look and see attendance rates at 96 and 97 percent on some days, and am like ‘Wow.’ From every metric, reputation, pride and enrollment. It’s been a wonderful year,” Lee said.

New schools mean new traditions need to be established. Lee said that’s a tough task to accomplish when three different schools are coming together. He said he feels the students and staff were able to overcome that challenge.

“At the very beginning of the year, in August and September, there were challenges there. Students didn’t really know how to act or who to be around, and so there was this feeling-out period for a couple of months, honestly, at both schools. As time went by, the staff began to gel with eachother because it takes a while for a team to gel, and the kids did. It turned into a really good community at both schools,” Lee said.

Not only did both schools excel in the classroom, but they also had great success in athletics. Both schools had teams across various sports make the playoffs.

“Of course, academics are important, but let’s not kid ourselves, when the sports teams are playing well and we’re winning, there’s a little extra sense of pride down the halls. Everybody’s got a little extra pep in their step, and they’re more excited to come to school, and they can’t wait to either play, watch or perform,” Lee said.

When Lee became Superintendent back in 2022, he had a five-year plan for the district. Lee said they are close to being done with that initial plan.

“We’ll finish up Rider Middle School and do tours in July, and start working on the construction phase of McNeil Elementary. We will then close one or two elementaries to move them into McNeil. [Following that], we will put together a group of community citizens for a facility needs committee. They’ll look around the district and give us our next plan. We’ll take that information to the board, and then we’ll make a plan from there, so lots on the horizon,” Lee said.