Lufkin ISD introduces STEM school for upcoming school year in effort to boost student success

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - In an effort to improve academic success at one of its campuses, Lufkin ISD is converting an elementary school into a STEM school for the upcoming school year.

Starting next year, Brookhollow Elementary will become a STEM school — science, technology, engineering and math.

Jill Gaston, deputy superintendent for Lufkin ISD, said it’s something new for the district and something they have been working to put in motion for the past year.

“We get the opportunity to transform one of our campuses into something that the children of this community really deserve — something they haven’t had the opportunity to experience in the past,” Gaston said.

District officials say that by using inquiry-based learning and implementing a new curriculum, students will take a more hands-on approach to their education.

The district also plans to build a STEM lab and offer extracurricular activities such as robotics.

“At Lufkin ISD, we’re on a path to create a product out of our students who is marketable within our community and, in a broader sense, beyond. This opportunity provides us a framework to start them very young to be able to do that,” Gaston said.

The school will open next year for kindergarten through second grade, with additional grades added in subsequent years.

Susan Liles, principal of the new STEM school, said that after visiting several STEM schools across the state, the impact on students is evident.

“What amazed me was the vocabulary that kindergartners were using. Just their ability to have a conversation with an adult — they just dove right in. This is what we’re doing, this is how it works, this is how it happens,” Liles explained.

According to Lufkin ISD’s chief innovation officer, students who begin in a STEM curriculum are twice as likely to take advanced classes in high school, and it changes how they approach difficult situations.

“Not just the rhetorical responses, but can they think outside of the box? With STEM education, that’s what the students are doing. Instead of sitting and listening, they’re the ones exploring,” Dr. Matthew Pariseau, Lufkin’s chief innovation officer, said.

Lufkin ISD is still working on the rubric for applications, but officials say current Brookhollow students will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis and that a student’s grades will not determine whether they can attend the school.

Applications for the STEM school are expected to open in early 2026.