The grocery chain H-E-B and its founding Butt family are donating $10 million to help build a new elementary school in Uvlade to replace Robb Elementary, where a shooter took 21 lives on May 24.
Robb Elementary has been permanently closed, and local officials have decided to demolish the building. It was built in the 1960s and housed 538 students in grades second through fourth.
H-E-B chairman Charles Butt said the grocery retailer has operated in Uvalde since 1959 and the people there “are our people.”
The donation is going to the Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation, which was created in the wake of the deadly school shooting. Funding will support the construction of a new school campus so students and staff will not have to return to the site of the tragedy.
Two other Texas companies, Fort Worth-based Huckabee, an architecture firm that specializes in education buildings, and San Antonio-based Joeris General Contractors are also founding donors. They have made commitments to donate their services and time to the project.
The grocery family has a long tradition of supporting public education. In 2017, Butt donated $100 million to create a new institute dedicated to training school principals and superintendents. More recently, H-E-B donated $1 million to help DISD reopen schools destroyed by the 2019 Dallas tornadoes.
“As we continue to mourn tremendous loss, I join with my family and H-E-B in working to ensure the Uvalde community can move forward from this tragic event,” Butt said. “Our children are this country’s future, and our schools should be a safe place where children can thrive and envision new possibilities.”
Separately, H-E-B has made two other commitments in the aftermath of the tragedy in Uvalde, $500,000 through a store donation campaign to support the victims and families and another $500,000 donation to nonprofits working to help families in Uvalde.
