SAN ANGELO, TX — The San Angelo Independent School District Board of Trustees voted Monday to table a proposal to abate and demolish the former Carver Learning Center campus, giving community leaders six months to explore options for preserving the historic site.
The agenda item called for approving contracts with 1 Priority Environmental Services for abatement and Reece Albert Trucking for demolition. Both firms received the highest scores among seven bidders. The total cost was listed at $333,570, which included a $40,000 contingency.
District officials had deemed the campus “vacant and no longer needed” because of declining enrollment districtwide and the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program’s relocation from the site after the 2024-25 school year.
Several community members, including representatives from the local NAACP chapter, asked the board to refrain from demolition. They cited the campus’s importance to the Blackshear neighborhood and San Angelo’s history. The Carver campus was established in the 1920s as the primary school for the district’s then-segregated Black community and later served as an auxiliary education site.
After discussion with attending citizens, the board tabled further consideration of the campus’s future for six months. Community leaders now have time to develop preservation plans.
“The wonderful thing that happened this evening is community members came and said, ‘Hey, give us a chance,'" President of the school board Taylor Kingman said. "We understand that you don’t need it to educate children anymore, that’s not what it’s best served for, but it’s a vital part of history in San Angelo, so give us a chance to figure out. We can raise the money, we can come up with something to do with it."
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Post a comment to this article here: