MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Westhaven neighborhood, school, and community leaders gathered Tuesday to break ground on the new Westhaven Elementary School building on Hodge.
It was hard for Parent Teacher Organization President Bridget Bradley to find the words to describe the fight it has taken to reach this point.
Westhaven was a school that was on the district’s closure list early last year. Bradley said it was in a state of disrepair. Now, it is being rebuilt brand new.
“This is an example of what you can do when you get together. When you unify,” she said.
Bradley and others took their fight to the Shelby County Schools School Board.
“I said, let’s do a petition drive in the mall. We did a petition drive in the mall. Let’s do a t-shirt drive. We did a t-shirt drive,” she said.
It took months to draft plans and get the project out to bid, but the district said as of now, the school will cost about $10 million.
Many Westhaven students were sent to Fairley and Raineshaven elementary schools for the duration of the construction.
But come next year, those schools are scheduled to close, and everyone will pack their backpacks to attend Westhaven.
The building will be more than 90,000 square feet and have room to accommodate about 960 students.