As Westlake City Schools builds its future, it honors its past.

The district unveiled a monument honoring the old Red Brick School in a ceremony on Thursday. It will sit in a plaza between the current Lee Burneson Middle School and the new one under construction.

Milano Monuments created the plaque, featuring an image of the Red Brick School, that is in the monument. Jim Milano of Milano Monuments is a Westlake resident. The stone for the monument came from the site of the new Westlake High School under construction.

"It's important for us to understand our history as part of our progress," said Board of Education president Tom Mays. "By keeping our history, we show what Westlake is built on."

The students who attended Red Brick School established a tradition of excellence that should inspire students of today and the future, said superintendent Dan Keenan.

"Too often, we focus on the barriers, thinking they're insurmountable or too intimidating," he said. "Experience gives confidence and self-worth. And the tradition, experiences and history of others who came before is something that can be drawn on."

The Red Brick School, which once sat between Dover Elementary and Lee Burneson Middle School, was opened in 1909. It was the first central school in town. Before that, children had attended smaller neighborhood schools.

The Red Brick School closed in 1968 and served as the school district's administration building until 2003. It was torn down in 2010.

But the Red Brick School will live on in Westlake, and not just in the monument. Bricks from the school were used to create Founders Walk at Clague Park. Pieces of the old sandstone arched entry will be used in an arched entryway at the new Westlake Hgh School. Red brick is a dominant look in both the new high school and middle school.

Todd Wroblesky, the architect on the school construction projects, is a 1984 Westlake High graduate.

"It's an honor to do a project like this for the school you graduated from," he said. "I hated to see the Red Brick School go, but it's nice to take elements of it and incorporate it into the new buildings."