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Honoring a legacy

District honors first school board



HONORING A LEGACY — Brian, Felecia, Barry, Kelly, Roy, Jeannine, Jeff and Terry Eaton honored V.R. Eaton and Leo Adams, who were members of the first Northwest ISD School Board. RICHARD GREENE/WCMESSENGER

HONORING A LEGACY — Brian, Felecia, Barry, Kelly, Roy, Jeannine, Jeff and Terry Eaton honored V.R. Eaton and Leo Adams, who were members of the first Northwest ISD School Board. RICHARD GREENE/WCMESSENGER

Stretching into three counties and 14 communities, Northwest ISD is home today to more than 28,000 students at 30 schools.

But in 1949, with the changing education landscape in Texas and many small schools consolidating, the leaders of the many rural communities were looking for a way to provide a quality education to the region’s children.

“The Northwest School District was part of that consolidation as a group of farmers, ranchers, small business owners and parents in Rhome, Roanoke, Justin and Haslet knew that a larger school district could offer their children a better education,” said Roy Eaton, son of V.R. Eaton, one of the first school board members.

“My dad and other members of the first school board worked day and night to create the new school district, hired J. Lyndal Hughes as the first superintendent and sat about the task to create what was unheard of at the time — a school district covering three counties.”

Last week, Northwest ISD honored the first school board members

GUIDING THE WAY — Northwest ISD honored the many contributors that helped pave the way for success for the district with its 2022 Legacy Wall class. RICHARD GREENE/WCMESSENGER

GUIDING THE WAY — Northwest ISD honored the many contributors that helped pave the way for success for the district with its 2022 Legacy Wall class. RICHARD GREENE/WCMESSENGER

— V.R. Eaton, Leo Adams, Claude Calvert, F.A. Cowart, John D. Faught, O.A. Peterson and J.C. Thompson — with plaques on the Legacy Wall at the Legacy Learning Center in Haslet. The Legacy Wall was unveiled in an official dedication of the center, which serves as a professional development space for staff training and home to the special programs center for alternative student placement and the R.I.S.E. and Horizons programs to support students with special needs.

Family members of the first school board members had the opportunity to speak on the contributions of their parents and grandparents to the formation of the district.

Jeannine Adams Eaton recalled her cousin Billy Powers and neighbor Curtis Tally being pages for Senator R.L. Proffer in the Texas Legislature when the bill establishing the Northwest district was passed. Her father, Leo Adams, joined the first school board.

“There was a small school on my granddad’s property on Highway 114 where my mother had attended that was vacant in 1948. It was torn down and the material was used to build the first ag building,” Mrs. Eaton recalled. “One of the first social events of the new district to introduce staff and members of the four communities was a picnic at the Gibbs Farm, now the Northwest ISD Outdoor Learning Center.”

Assistant Superintendent for Facilities Tim McClure credited the work of the first school board for helping the district become the vast, successful district it is today. The district covers 234 square miles.

“Obviously Northwest is a great place to attend and work and the evidence is from the stories we’ve heard tonight,” McClure said.

He also pointed out rocks from the original Haslet school site was used in the legacy wall.

Along with the first school board, four other key contributors to the success of the district were part of the 2022 class — Mehran Aghili, MacKenzie Dunckelman, Mays Fuqua and Dennis McCreary.

Aghili oversaw construction of many the district’s facilities. Dunckelman was part of the first class of the Horizons program. Fuqua was an educator with the district for more than 30 years, working with the ag program and later becoming a counselor and assistant superintendent. McCreary was an assistant superintendent for facilities for the district.

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