Students and parents lined up earlier this week to get a glimpse of one of Frisco ISD's newest schools.
Superintendent Mike Waldrip showed us around Wilkinson Middle School opening up in the northwest corner of the district.
The school building is a new design for Frisco ISD mimicking some of the open spaces and collaborative working you see in corporate America.
"You want the building itself to be a tool for learning, just like a textbook, just like any other resource and you want it to lend itself to see the learning and that's what these spaces were created for," said Waldrip.
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The district also opened its first intermediate school on the other side of town in Mckinney.
Two new schools Frisco ISD is opening this year are actually a decrease for the community, which has been scrambling to keep up with the massive growth here. They now have 77 schools.
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"One of the things with rapid growth is your struggle with your programs and that's I think one of the benefits now in Frisco we have some very solid developed programs and that slow down in growth has helped us do that," said Waldrip.
You could almost see the weight lift off Waldrip's shoulder this year as he talked about normalcy returning to schools; teacher shortages, political concerns and covid.
"I don't think you can diminish the impact, at all, that the pandemic had on everything. I know we went through the great resignation and all that, we felt it too. You know, I mean, we've had a lot of people retire, we've had a lot of people think about, you know, going into other professions and this and that, and I think everything has kind of come back to level set," he said.
The district's performance and test scores have been solid, and Waldrip expects no changes. There are no real academic slumps to overcome but he is excited about a new program coming to the district.
"We're going to put in a new gaming system, a gaming program you know and it's not just kids playing games but the graphics aspect the computer programming aspect we're really looking forward to that," he added.
Waldrip says he's also been listening to his community asking for guidance on changes he can make to keep Frisco ISD a place people want to choose for their child's education.
"I think that's one of the most important things right now you've got to know where your community is and what they want from the school system," said Waldrip.
