By LYNETTE SOWELL-STEVENS
Cove Leader-Press
After nearly 600 students and 106 staff spent the 2025-2026 school year divided between Fairview/Jewell Elementary and Martin Walker Elementary, the doors are officially reopened at Williams/Ledger Elementary School.
Copperas Cove ISD held a grand reopening along with a ribbon cutting on Monday afternoon, attended by district administration, trustees, campus staff, families, former campus staff, and students.
After several speeches outside and then the ribbon cutting, attendees were invited inside to see the campus – the main areas such as the cafeteria where refreshments were served, along with a few classrooms, where teachers have already been at work preparing for students to return.
The past year has been a succession of updates from the district while the campus was cleared of damaged ceilings, water damage abated, furniture and equipment removed, while the interior and exterior of the campus was repaired and restored.
Principal Jennifer Cresswell shared about the experience, from the time she first heard of the flooding and damage inside the school in July 2026, until now.
“During those July 4th rains, I was actually out of town at a conference when it happened, and people started to call me because we were hosting summer school here on campus. It just progressively got worse and worse. When I left the conference to come to come here, it was in pretty bad shape,” Creswell recalled, stating it was “heartbreaking” to see when she returned.
“Lots of hard work goes into running the campus and teaching children, and it was really defeating, all the damage that had been done and just trying to grapple with what we were going to do to host school for the school year. But we had a great team of support, great community support that helped us through it.”
She expressed her gratitude for the process, and what the campus looks like now, as did the campus staff.
“They’re really, really excited and very pleased with the transformation that the campus has undergone, and they’re just very, very grateful and happy to be home. They are full of just so much care and compassion and resilience. I’m really proud to report that 96 percent of the staff stayed with us through it. So I think that is a testament to our campus community that we have here.”
She said she was stunned at the campus’ major transformation and some dated things had been updated.
“I’m just very happy with how everything turned out. Everybody’s worked so incredibly hard, and it just looks beautiful.”
For current trustee Mike Wilburn, it was like coming full circle. Wilburn was the first principal of the J.L. Williams side of the campus when it first opened 36 years ago.
“I remember when we first started J. L. Williams and Lovett Ledger Elementary. Bob Weiss was the principal of Ledger Intermediate at that time. It’s a pleasure and an honor to see the things that y’all have done in making this one of the premier schools. You’ve done a lot. We appreciate what you’ve done for the students of our school.” Wilburn also acknowledged other former campus administrators and staff who were in attendance.
The district also acknowledged Crossin Restoration, who oversaw the process of the complete interior and exterior restoration and reconstruction that took place at the campus.
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