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Cynthia Perez, a dyslexia teacher at Thornton Elementary, directs students during the school’s Sneak a Peek preview event Aug. 9, 2024, in Arlington. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)
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Not much has changed at Thornton and Berry elementary schools in the past four years.

Sure, the classrooms are bigger, the libraries and cafeterias have expanded, the playgrounds have more slides and both buildings have new second floors. But for Thornton Principal Alicia Rodriguez, things feel the same as always, in a good way.

The east Arlington campuses reopened in 2023 after their previous buildings were demolished and reconstructed — two of the four rebuilds funded by Arlington ISD’s nearly $1 billion bond passed in 2019. During the projects, students and staff moved to Knox Elementary, which has since been shuttered and merged with other campuses.

Berry Elementary SchoolThornton Elementary School

Thornton’s building is nearly unrecognizable from the 1956 original where Rodriguez started working in 2001. 

“But, it felt like home pretty quickly,” she said. “Because it’s not really about the building. It’s about the kids, and the families you serve, and feeling like you’re there for a purpose.”

Berry’s new campus had families and teachers wide-eyed and awestruck when it opened last year, said Andrea Powers, the school’s dean of instruction. Comparing the old building’s cinder block walls and often-cramped spaces to Berry’s shiny new paint and open rooms felt like night and day.

Rodriguez’s favorite parts of the remodel are the new collaborative learning spaces, where different classes in each grade can get together for periods and learn in a common space, she said. Getting to work with other classes breaks up the monotony for students and builds collaborative relationships between teachers.

Students receive instruction during a summer camp at Berry Elementary on July 22, 2024. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

About halfway through Berry Elementary’s first year on the new campus, Berry Principal Donita James had a class of excited fifth graders run up to her. The trees outside their classroom window had died. 

Without greenery blocking their second-floor view of the city, they could, in the distance, see the outline of AT&T Stadium. 

“They were so happy,” James said, laughing. “It’s the little things.”

The polished new schools, with their touchscreen light controls and advanced STEM learning technology, strike a special chord in the east Arlington community they serve. 

More than 95% of Thornton students and almost 91% of Berry students are from low-income families.

The community has always had pride in its school, Rodriguez said, with or without a fancy building. That pride was especially evident when the new campus opened, she said. 

“We deserve this,” Rodriguez recalled parents telling her.

A student at Thornton Elementary buys a school T-shirt on Aug. 9, 2024, in Arlington. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

Changes on campus made a visible difference in children’s attitudes toward the school, said Miriam Ortiz, who taught kindergarten at Thornton through the remodel. Even for students as young as the kids in Ortiz’s classes, she feels the improvements make attending college in the future more tangible. 

Ortiz was a Thornton student in the 1990s, and she remembers most of her classmates never considered college as part of their future. They assumed that, after high school, they’d immediately start working full time. 

“This is changing that mindset,” she said.

The new building shows students they have high-quality education in their home neighborhoods, Ortiz said. Since the reopening, they spend more time on campus, playing soccer on the surrounding field during after-school hours and weekends 

“It reminds me of a college campus,” said A’twana Hess, mother of Aliana Williams, who’s starting second grade at Thornton.

Thornton Principal Alicia Rodriguez started as a teacher at the school in 2001 and is a mother to three Arlington ISD students. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

The family moved from Chicago in 2021, when Thornton was being demolished, so she didn’t know the school existed until recently, Hess said. Now that she’s toured the campus, Hess is excited about her daughter’s education in ways she didn’t know she could be.

The remodel benefits parents, too, Rodriguez said. It added a designated room for Thornton’s parent education programs that help families navigate the tech-heavy parts of public education. 

The school’s online registration and communication can be dizzying, especially when language barriers get in the way. When parents came to Rodriguez for help, she applied for and received a grant to establish the now-popular service.

A Thornton Elementary student leaves the school’s Sneak a Peek preview event on Aug. 9, 2024, in Arlington. (Drew Shaw | Arlington Report)

First-year, English-as-a-second-language teacher Denisse Pavlovich attended her training at Thornton earlier this summer, fresh out of a college certification program. Stepping foot on campus felt like a homecoming, Pavlovich said. She first came to Thornton in fourth grade, shortly after her family immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico in 2001. 

“I grew up in the apartments right across the street. I knew what it was like to be coming to school and it being the only place that felt safe,” Pavlovich said. “With this new building, I think the kids will really feel proud.”

Her fourth-grade teacher? Rodriguez, who inspired Pavlovich’s career in education.

A lot has changed for Pavlovich. Rodriguez was grading her math homework 23 years ago. Now, Rodriguez is reviewing her job performance.

So, in the bigger picture of Pavlovich’s life, Thornton’s new walls don’t seem too big of a deal. It’s still the same school, on the same street, with the same trees, serving the same community. 

Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.