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For nearly 60 years, generations of students have walked the halls of Farmers Branch Elementary. Soon, those hallways will disappear into time.
Students and staff are spending their final weeks in a building that has been the heartbeat of the neighborhood since 1967. The campus will be torn down this summer and rebuilt as part of a $716 million bond package that Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District voters approved in 2023. Carrollton Elementary School also was included in the bond.
The school’s entire student body and staff will move this fall two miles north to Central Elementary, located at 1600 S. Perry Rd. in Carrollton, which will be rebranded Farmers Branch Elementary North Campus for the 2026-2027 school year. The new building is expected to be ready by late 2027 or early 2028 and will be able to accommodate up to 850 students.
The existing campus, located near Vivian Field Middle School, dates back nearly six decades. Farmers Branch Elementary School Principal Rachel Langston said the replacement campus will include natural light, modern safety features, ADA-compliant playgrounds and classroom upgrades designed around current educational needs.
“Every class will have a door, and every class will have a window and natural light, which is so important for students and teachers,” Langston said.
The new Farmers Branch Elementary and Carrollton Elementary campuses will use the same basic architectural design, differing primarily in color schemes, Langston said. Farmers Branch’s campus will feature red accents, while Carrollton Elementary’s campus will use green.
But before the school empties out, Langston wants the community to celebrate. A public “Walk Through Our Story” event is scheduled for 5-7 p.m. Friday, May 15, inviting former students, families, neighbors and community members to walk the halls one last time.
“Our story isn’t over,” Langston said. “We’re just turning the page.”
However, not everyone is celebrating quietly. Farmers Branch Elementary alumna Jennifer Evans flagged on Facebook what she described as a significant lack of public engagement around the project, which involved a land swap between the City of Farmers Branch and the school district.
“This post is where citizens are to learn about the demolition?!?” she wrote on the Farmers Branch City Hall Facebook post.
Evans raised concerns that were aired at the February 2025 Parks and Recreation Board meeting, which included elimination of soccer and baseball fields and parking and traffic impacts, and said none of those issues were further addressed to residents. She said she could no longer locate the FBTV YouTube recording or Granicus link from that parks and recreation meeting, which the Branch Herald confirmed.
The concerns point to a recurring tension in both Farmers Branch and the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District: decisions with significant community impact moving forward without adequate forums for public input.
Langston said the orientation of the school will change from Tom Field Road to Richland Avenue.
Evans said maps showed a new road being built behind the new school, along where two ballfields currently are, that will dead-end into Vivian Field Middle School and provide access into parking where two current soccer fields are located.
Langston has worked to reassure families that the school community is not being merged with another campus. She held a family information meeting explaining the move and is offering three separate Coffee with a Principal sessions at different times to accommodate working parents.
“I want them to feel so comfortable,” she said. “It’s the same school. Same heart. Different location.”
PTA President Lupe Gonzalez, who also serves as the Farmers Branch City Council District 1 representative and is a Farmers Branch alumna herself, started at the elementary school in third grade in 1999, when parts of the school were under construction. She said she understood and feels the emotional weight of the moment but embraced what is coming.
“It really breaks my heart to see it go, but it is such an old school, and these kids deserve a new school,” she said.
Gonzalez said she knew from the 2023 bond that replacement construction was coming but was caught off guard by the news that the school would need to vacate while the building was under construction.
“I knew it was coming but I didn’t know we have to move,” she said.
Diana Castillo, a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Farmers Branch Elementary, attended the school herself in the early 2000s and said she specifically sought out the job to return to her roots.
“It’s so nice being back home. This is home,” she said. “I still walk in with a backpack.”
Castillo said the building’s demolition stings, but she’s focused on what the community is gaining.
“It’s so sad,” she said, “but our school is going to be in a new building, so it’s great for our kids, our future.”
She said the bonds forged among staff and students will survive the construction. “I feel we’re a family. We’re a team. Wherever we go, we’re a family, so they’ll be fine wherever we go.”
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