Former teachers, students of Kurth, Coston schools in Lufkin visit before closure

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - This is the last year students will graduate, the last year teachers will teach and the last time the doors will be open to the community at Coston Elementary School and Kurth Primary School.

Alumni, former teachers and people who love these schools are bleeding school colors of mighty green and fiery red.

“I feel like we kind of grieved in our own way. It’s kind of like a family being separated,” said Coston Elementary Teacher Lianna Stovall.

Kurth opened in 1959 and Coston in 1958.

When both schools close for summer break, over six decades of learning will come to an end.

Teachers like Amy Rhoades, who’s taught English at Coston Elementary for 19 years, say they’re mourning that harsh reality.

“When it came down to it, it was still a blow -- it was still, you know, we cried,” said Rhoades.

The Lufkin ISD School Board made the unanimous decision to close Kurth and Coston after years of declining enrollment and costs above budget.

“It’s like losing a piece of your history,” said Coston Elementary Alumnus Bryan Tomez.

Tomez says he’s using his last visit to remember where he came from.

“All these years I was here to walk through the classrooms, for the most part I remember where I sat,” said Tomez.

Maurice Vincent, who went to Kurth when it first opened, remembers their strict dress code.

“Shirts tucked in -- you had to have a belt on, no shoes without socks,” said Vincent.

Among it all, there’s one word that kept coming up at both celebrations: family.

It’s that same word that’s bringing them comfort as they face this change.

“It’s really going to hit me on the very last day of school, when I turn in my key, and I know I can’t get back in,” said Rhoades.

Some staff from Coston Elementary and Kurth Primary school will transition to other positions in Lufkin ISD.

Teachers say the next step will be to pack up each campus before the last day of school.