Ezzell ISD to offer high school classes

By BOBBY HORECKA

bobbyhorecka@gmail.com

Members of the Ezzell ISD school board boldly

went where none of Lavaca County’s other small

country school districts have yet dared in a modern

era, when trustees approved a plan to start

high school course offerings next school year.

Ezzell School, along with Sweet Home ISD and

Vysehrad ISD, have long served their students at

the elementary through junior high grade school

grade levels, Pre-K through Grade 8.

Generations of some families have now attended

those very campuses, many of them using the

same classrooms, possibly even the same furniture.

And for those generations now, completion

of eighth grade meant just one thing.

That is, they’d be leaving soon. Time to go become

a Brahma--as Hallettsville High’s mascot is

called—or sport Yoakum High’s blue and become

a Bulldog. That was it, however. They were your

options if you chose to continue school.

“We started last year and took a real long hard

look at exactly why we did things the way we did,”

said Ezzell Superintendent Lisa Berckenhoff.

What they found, in more than a few cases,

was that not everyone was likely best served,

getting uprooted from a nice comfortable spot

to be pitched over to someplace like Hallettsville

or Yoakum. Sure, they’re hardly Houston, but for

what some of Berckenhoff’s students were used

to, going to Ezzell the last nine years, they may

as well be. After all, a single grade level likely outnumbers

every kid Berckenhoff has, from little

bitty to eighth grade.

Or, come next year, 12th, quite possibly.

Eight students was what she was counting on

to get started that first year, at least. Based on who

they are, none are seniors. But that doesn’t mean

we couldn’t pick one up by then.

There’s much to do still Berckenhoff says. And

it’ll likely be a busy summer for her. One of the

items she hopes to have in place by then is a

portable building, where she hopes to hold the

school’s very first high school courses, when students

return to classes in the fall.

Times are changing, especially for a little school

like hers.

“It sure is exciting, at least,” she says.