People begin to arrive for a final walk through Burbank High School on Saturday, July 23, 2022.With son Nickolas at her side and son Ruben on a video call, Ana Puentes spent her Saturday afternoon walking the halls of Burbank High School one last time.
Puentes said it is “heartbreaking” to be taking a last walk in the building. She had hoped to have at least three more years of seeing the school — Nickolas, 16, is going into his sophomore year.Like his mother, Ruben Puentes, 25, said he’ll never forget the memories he made on the Burbank campus.Ana Puentes said her mother keeps a wall of photos of the several Burbank graduates in the family — decked out in their graduation gowns.
Burbank High School first opened in 1937. In the 1960s, that building was torn down and replaced with the facility that stands today, San Antonio Independent School District trustee Art Valdez said. Although Valdez was one of the first Burbank graduates to attend classes in the building built in the ’60s, he became a major proponent of building a state-of-the-art school.