DALLAS — As a former school board President, it was easy for former State Sen. Beverly Powell to find her mission once she left office.
Uvalde needed help building a new school.
She had the experience and more importantly, a well-placed friend.
Chris Huckabee is the CEO of Huckabee, an architecture and engineering firm that focuses on building schools and Universities.
Here in Texas, you’ve more than likely visited one of their campuses.
Once Powell decided to help, she asked Huckabee if he’d design the school for free, if she could raise the money through the “Uvalde Moving Forward Foundation.”
“He said in an instant, 'yes I will,'” Powell told us on Inside Texas Politics. “Today we stand at $48 million that we have raised to complete this project.”
And that means they’re only $12 million short.
Other construction companies have also offered product to help build a new school in Uvalde, a community still recovering after a gunman entered Robb Elementary in May 2022 and killed 19 students and two teachers.
A few months after the tragedy, the school board decided to demolish Robb Elementary and build an entirely new campus.
Powell says they expect to hold the official groundbreaking for the new school in October, and construction is expected to be completed in 2025.
“We’re out for bid right now and evaluating the companies that are going to make bids to do the work. So yes, we are on the road to get our project started. We also have acquired the land for the project,” the Democrat said.