• The Denton ISD Board of School Trustees announced the official name of the new elementary school on Riney Road in Denton – Anita Reeves Elementary School – honoring Anita Reeves, who worked as an educator in Denton ISD for 35 years.

    The new elementary school will serve 750 students and was part of the $1.4 billion bond referendum that Denton ISD voters overwhelmingly approved this past May.

    “I am just so humbled and so blessed,” said Ms. Reeves when she learned the school would be named for her. “Who would have thought when we moved here in 1977 that all this would happen? I just can’t believe it. Our family is so into education. It is just wonderful to be celebrated like this. It was the last thing I expected to happen. I just get goosebumps.”

    Ms. Reeves joined Denton ISD in 1977, working as a substitute teacher for a year. She then served as a special education aide at the Davis School before moving to Sam Houston Elementary.

    From 1984 to 2001, Ms. Reeves was a fifth-grade teacher at Sam Houston. She later became a physical education teacher from 2001 until her retirement in 2013.

    In 2008, she was named the Sam Houston Elementary and Denton ISD’s Elementary Teacher of the Year.

    “My philosophy of education is to be able to meet the needs of each student on his or her level,” said Ms. Reeves in her 1977 employment application. “Education is learning to live a happy and fulfilling life. As a teacher, I would try to educate each student so they would not only have book knowledge, but also be able to adjust to life.”

    A breast cancer survivor, Ms. Reeves was diagnosed in 1996 and is now a cancer survivor ambassador – willing to share her life experiences with others battling cancer.

    Ms. Reeves was the chair and president of the district’s Teacher Communications Committee (TCC) and was a founding member. She received her bachelor’s degree from Kansas State Teachers College and her master’s degree from Texas Woman’s University.

    Ms. Reeves is married to Vernon Reeves Sr., a retired veteran coach from Denton High School. They have raised three sons who are all Denton High graduates: Russell Reeves, athletic director of Rockwall ISD; Rodrick Reeves, AIA, senior project manager at Texas Woman’s University and Vernon Reeves Jr., principal of Ryan High School.

    The Reeves family includes multiple generations with ties to Denton ISD and the Denton community.