History

In planning for growth, the Bellevue Board of Education has always purchased land in the areas in which Bellevue was expected to grow. Such purchases were often made with the help and advice of developers. Such was the case with Twin Ridge, a large development that began in the early 1960s.

The Bellevue Board of Education purchased land for a school on the eastern side of the Twin Ridge housing development after a $1 million bond issue was approved in early 1963. The Bellevue Board of Education decided to name the new school Twin Ridge after the development, which had been named by developer R. Joe Dennis.

Thus, another school was added to the history of Bellevue's development. First, farmland became transformed into a housing development. A school was built to serve the families of this new community and its surrounding area. The school became the hub of the neighborhood. The name of the school, in this case the name of the development, became the name of the expanded neighborhood.

Bellevue Schools’ central office was located in a farmhouse located just south of Twin Ridge School. Because people who had lived in this farmhouse had raised mink in the basement, this central office became known as “The Mink Farm.” It housed the Central Office for a few years after it moved out of East Ward and before it moved into the empty restaurant building on Franklin Street.