Dedication ceremony celebrates new Peach Elementary

Feb. 2, 2017 - Hundreds of people filled the Peach Elementary cafetorium Saturday, Jan. 28, for a school dedication ceremony that honored the school’s namesakes and celebrated the school’s future impact on students.

Throughout the ceremony, Peach family and former colleagues showered praise on Eddy and Debbie Peach. The pair are worthy namesakes with a combined 81 years of service in the AISD. More importantly, thousands of students and teachers are better off for having had the Peaches as teachers and coaches. Debbie, an English teacher, won Teacher of the Year awards at the elementary, junior high and high school level. Eddy was Lamar High School's first football coach and the first coach to win 300 games at the Texas Class 5A level.

The Voices of Peach choir opened and closed the ceremony and Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams presented a city proclamation declaring January 28, 2017, Eddy and Debbie Peach Day.

After the ceremony, cake was served and teachers opened their classrooms for tours.

The 122,000 square-foot school in north Arlington has a 900-student capacity with 46 core classrooms, collaborative areas for each grade, two STEM labs, art room, strings room, music room, media center and two playgrounds, one for younger students and one for older. The building also includes a 7,000 square-foot Boys and Girls Club.

Peach Elementary opened in August 2016, one of two new elementary schools funded by the 2014 Bond program. The building was designed by Perkins + Will Architects and constructed under the management of Balfour Beatty Construction.