Megan Navarro
BUDA — A Hays CISD school that holds several decades of history and stories told behind the walls and classrooms could be up for sale.
Background
The Buda school system was organized from the consolidation of several 19th century rural schools, including Elm Grove — the largest school in Hays County in 1876 — Goforth, Turnersville, Mountain City, Antioch, Science Hall and Kellyville, according to the Historical Marker Database. In 1881, the year Cornelia Trimble platted Buda, Mary Adams established the first school on property east of the railroad track along Railroad Street and served as its teacher.
In 1885, school trustees erected a two-story wooden school building at the site where the former Buda Elementary School now stands at 300 N. San Marcos St. In 1908, trustees replaced it with a larger, two-story brick building to accommodate Buda’s growing population. When that Buda High School structure burned in 1928, builders completed the present mission style, one-story schoolhouse, designed by Austin architect Roy L. Thomas, which incorporated the standing walls of the previous building still visible in the auditorium space, the database stated.
The first graduating class of only six students received their diplomas in 1910, according to the school’s website.
From 1931 to 1945, Bob Barton Sr. served as school superintendent, in addition to his other duties as bus driver, teacher and coach. He and his wife, Marietta, aided in the fight for school integration, which began when the city’s Mexican American school closed in 1948. African American high school students were able to attend the main school in 1956, with grades one through eight integrated by 1961.
Buda, Kyle and Wimberley schools joined in 1967 to form Hays Consolidated Independent School District — before Wimberley formed a separate district. Following this consolidation, Buda High School was used as the junior high and, later, the Buda Elementary School upper campus.
The lower campus, a newer facility, was built in 1981 at 500 FM 967.
“We stopped using the school after the 2018-2019 school year. It was replaced by the new Buda Elementary School that year from proceeds in the 2017 bond. A replacement school was put in that bond because the lower campus of the historic Buda school flooded twice,” said chief communications officer Tim Savoy. “The facility needed several million in repairs since as far back as 2014, and, rather than put that into the school that was not designed for modern safety and technology, the community chose to build a replacement campus.”
On the market
The Buda Elementary upper and lower campuses were put on the market for potential sale to see how much the district might get for the property, said Savoy. This comes after Hays CISD found a need to sell the property, due to it being too costly to maintain.
“We need to sell because we have had interest in the property and because it is costly to maintain under the increasingly strained operational budget that the state allows us to have,” Savoy said. “We have considered through the years using the building for different purposes and have actually used it for various things since it closed as a school. The problem is that it no longer meets most of the standards needed to house programs with children.”
The bids, which were sealed, would now have to be reviewed by the school board to see if they want to accept one and sell or not. Savoy said that the proceeds from the sale would go into replenishing the general fund from having to cover inflation costs not covered by the state since the pandemic.
Ultimately, Hays CISD would like to see the building — at least the historic part — be preserved, as the campus is important to the community that has many memories there.
“I know that this campus is precious to the community and it holds a very special place in the hearts of all who attended, or had children attend, the campus,” he said.
