Parkland School Board announced June 19 David and Jackie Jaindl, and their children have been given the courtesy of naming its newest elementary school as an expression of appreciation for their recent land donation.

The elementary school will be in the middle of one of the district’s fastest growing areas of new residential construction.

David Jaindl made a presentation expressing his passion for serving military veterans and therefore proposed the name Veterans Memorial Elementary School.

This name was subsequently approved by the school board.

This is not the first time David Jaindl partnered with Parkland, his alma mater, to honor veterans.

He and his family presented a gift in the amount of $50,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project at Parkland High School in 2013.

The gift was derived from the proceeds of a Tough Mudder held at Jaindl AG’s Raven Valley farm in Heidelberg Township that summer.

At that event, local politicians presented citations commemorating Nov. 8 as “Wounded Warrior Day in the Lehigh Valley,” the Parkland High School Band honored veterans with a music procession, and Parkland High School students shared information about a Veterans Day Community Service project that entailed the collection of cards for the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

On Feb. 28, 2017, Parkland School Board announced an agreement to accept a donated parcel of land from David Jaindl, president of Jaindl Land Company, for the purpose of building a new elementary school.

The 18-acre parcel is on the west side of Twin Ponds Road between Long Lane and Schantz Road.

The new school will accommodate a growing population of residents in the southwest corner of Parkland School District, where new construction continues to occur at a fast pace.

The district closed on the property on May 1 and broke ground later last month for the new school, which is slated to open in September 2020.

Veterans Memorial will be Parkland’s ninth elementary school and will accommodate approximately 600 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Students from the new school will likely move into Springhouse Middle School following the completion of their elementary education.

The total cost of the new elementary school project will be approximately $35.8 million, including site work and road improvements near the school.

Enrollment patterns and projections are being studied and attendance boundaries are planned to be shared with students and parents in the fall of 2019.

Parkland Superintendent Richard Sniscak and Board President David Kennedy commented on the donation of land and naming of the new school.

“The Parkland School Board and Administration are pleased with David Jaindl and his family’s choice to name its newest school after veterans who are such important members of our community,” Sniscak stated. “I want to personally thank David and Jackie Jaindl for their generous gift of land and for honoring our nation’s heroes in their ability to name the school.”

“The school board is so grateful for the Jaindl family’s generosity, which impacts every taxpaying member of our community in a positive way, and we are honored to attach the name of Veterans Memorial to the new school,” Kennedy said.

David Jaindl, owner and president of Jaindl Farms and president of Jaindl Land Company also commented.

“What segment in our community is more worthy of being honored than veterans, particularly those veterans who have lost their lives while protecting our freedoms,” he said.