Namesake
Leland Edge grew up in southeast Texas and graduated from Saratoga High School. He attended Tyler Junior College and East Texas State College (now Texas A&M-Commerce) before beginning his education career as a part-time principal at the Josephine school in 1963. During his time in Josephine, Mr. Edge taught six classes, coached boys and girls sports, and drove a school bus. He also served as the youth director at First Baptist Church in Josephine, coached little league baseball, and was an assistant troop leader for the Boy Scouts.
Mr. Edge next moved to Community High School where he served as principal (1966-1968) and vocational agriculture teacher (1968-1972). Mr. Edge was an assistant football coach for the 1967 Regional Championship Braves football team. This was the highest honor in 8-man football at that time. From 1967-1969 the Braves won 30 consecutive games. In 1971, Mr. Edge led the FFA Greenhand Chapter Conducting Team, which won the State competition.
In 1972, Mr. Edge was named the fifth superintendent of schools in Community. The same year, voters passed a $900,000 bond election to build a new school in Nevada on land donated by Mr. Kirby Albright. When the school year started in 1974, Community Rural Schools welcomed the first class of kindergarten students. In the spring of 1974, Mr. Edge, students, and staff loaded school buses and trailers to move one classroom of desks and supplies at a time into the new campus. When the building opened it was the first time in Community ISD history that students in grades K-12 attended school in the same building. In 1975, Mr. Edge recommended and the school board approved a motion for Community Rural School District #718 to become Community ISD #918.
Mr. Edge was committed to seeking out innovative educational practices in order to bring the best opportunities possible to the students in Community. In 1977, he would be one of the first superintendents in the area to invest in telecomputing for the school. By 1983, Community ISD was featured in a Texas Education Agency (TEA) bulletin for the implementation of a "prototype for micro-computer use in Texas schools."
The district continued to grow under the leadership of Mr. Edge, and in 1983 the "McClendon Elementary" wing was added to the campus that originally opened in 1974. Mr. Edge served as superintendent from 1972 until 1987. He then served as superintendent in Alto ISD until his retirement in 1998. Mr. Edge continues to be a dedicated supporter of Community ISD, serving on the 70th and 75th anniversary planning committee and participating in many district events.
Mr. Edge married the former Pat Caldwell from Farmersville, Texas, in 1963. They have two children, Kim Weishaupt of Caddo Mills and Kendall Edge of Copeville, as well as three grandchildren: Allyson, Chelsey, and Brandon.
In 2013, the original Community Rural Schools building would be named Leland Edge Middle School. The "Edge" name would move across the street to the former CHS building in January 2021.