Lubbock ISD Board names new magnet school after Willie McCool

The Lubbock ISD Board of Trustees voted Thursday morning to name a new magnet middle school the Commander William C. “Willie” McCool Academy after the late astronaut and 1979 graduate of Coronado High School.

Lubbock ISD Superintendent Kathy Rollo said the name is particularly fitting since the future magnet school will specialize in a more hands-on approach to science and technology.

McCool’s parents were present at Thursday’s board meeting where they saw a tribute video of their son, followed by a unanimous vote to name the future magnet school in his honor.

McCool moved to Lubbock during his junior year in high school. After graduation he went on to serve as an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut.

In February 2003 he was the pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-107. McCool and the rest of the crew were killed when Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry to the atmosphere.

Coronado High School previously honored the memory of Astronaut McCool by renaming its physical track and football field on the campus the “Willie McCool Track & Field” and a statue honoring McCool, with his arm uplifting as if reaching for the stars, sits in Lubbock’s Huneke Park.

Superintendent Rollo said they sought naming ideas for the new school, and when someone suggested naming it after McCool, it seemed like the perfect fit.

“Willie McCool’s love for service, science, technology and learning will not be forgotten,” the video tribute read. “His legacy will continue to inspire Lubbock ISD students and staff.”

Rollo also shared the interesting bit of information that McCool’s younger sister attended Smylie Wilson.

The Commander William C. McCool Academy is scheduled to open next school year — the school year beginning in fall 2020. The magnet academy will be located at Smylie Wilson Middle School, which will close after this current school year.

Board members also voted Thursday to hire Carolyn Wadley as principal of the McCool Academy. Wadley, according to a news release, is currently an assistant principal at Smylie Wilson Middle School. She previously served as an assistant principal at O.L. Slaton Middle School.

The Lubbock ISD Board voted to close Smylie Wilson and open a new magnet school at its November meeting.

The changes are in response to Smylie Wilson's recent academic performances. Smylie Wilson received an F rating the past two years under the Texas Education Agency's annual A-F rating. Had those A-F ratings been around longer, Smylie Wilson would have received an F rating the previous four years.

Rollo described the new school as a project-based learning STEAM academy, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. Lubbock's superintendent said this would be the first of its kind in Lubbock, however there are several in the state the district will seek to emulate.

A news release from the district states that project-based learning, a teaching method where students learn by engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects requiring critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and various communication skills. As a result, students develop deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills, the district said.

Students from the Smylie neighborhood, and everywhere else in the district, can apply to attend the new magnet school. The application period for students to attend the new school is Jan. 8-24, 2020.

The new school will only teach 6th and 7th grades the first year, and only 200 students will be enrolled in each grade. Rollo said the district will use a lottery-based acceptance system — there will be no entrance requirements.

With Smylie Wilson closing, Lubbock ISD will redraw middle school boundary lines, and students who would previously attend Smylie Wilson, at 4402 31st St., will be going to Mackenzie or Irons Middle Schools. Lubbock's 34th Street would be the dividing line for the new boundaries: students living south of 34th Street would go to Irons, and north would go to Mackenzie. Rollo, though, said she believes many will wish to transfer to the McCool Academy.