By Cyndy Slovak-Barton

Dr. T.C. McCormick Jr. Middle School seems to be the name of Hays CISD’s middle school, due to open in the fall.

The Hays CISD committee in charge of gathering name recommendations reported to the school board at Monday’s meeting, recommending Middle School #6 be named McCormick Middle School.

T.C. McCormick Jr. was a Buda resident known for delivering many children in the Buda-Kyle area, anywhere from 1,600 to 1,800 of them. The apartments by Buda Elementary School upper campus at the corner of San Marcos and Ash Streets are housed in the original “hospital” which McCormick created in the 1940s from an old army officers’ hospital ward.

McCormick served as the town’s physician beginning in 1946, straight out of the army.

The school board noted that McCormick’s name rose to the top of the pack because of his early pioneering work on desegregation in Buda school district, and also for the many years he spent serving on the school board when Buda was still its own school district. It was during his school presidency that he was instrumental in integrating the Buda schools.

Middle school #6, aka McCormick Middle School, is located on Dacy Lane east of Buda. The school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016.

Final approval of the new school’s name will be made at the December school board meeting.

More than 250 people submitted recommendations for names for the school. The committee whittled the list down to 16, before finally settling on McCormick.

Besides McCormick, other middle school names from the recommended list include Cornelia A Trimble, Dacy, Dr. Jesse Porras, Jr., Elaine Meyer, Hillside, Jim Cullen, Joe Munoz, Katherine Anne Porter, Marie Tharp, Michael Russo, Randall Wade Vetter, Reynaldo Romero, Susie Kana, Tonkawa and William Mose “Moe” Johnson Sr.