King Husein School Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

A Day to Celebrate

The room filled early. Parents settled in beside teachers, board members, city leaders worked the aisles, and students packed the rows toward the back while a few hundred people caught up with one another all the way through the countdown to the program. By the time the first speaker reached the microphone Friday morning, the King Husein School Student Union was standing room only.

When SPAN Founder & Chairman King Husein, P.E. stepped through the doors with his distinguished guests, the room came alive. The man whose name now stands at the entrance of the school’s front gates was immediately surrounded by well-wishers offering handshakes, smiles, conversation, and congratulations. Community leaders, old friends, students, and families paused for a chance to greet him as he made his way to the stage. The brief walk to his seat became a celebration of the relationships he has built across Madera for nearly five decades.

Home of the Royals

King Husein School sits on 50 acres King donated to Madera Unified School District. The campus welcomed transitional kindergarten through eighth grade students on August 7 with roughly 550 enrolled and room to grow toward 1,000.

Superintendent Todd Lile described what the community had just built as “literally a hundred year enterprise.”

The institution is the home for the King Husein Royals. It’s the first new school built on Madera’s west side in 30 years, and it opens with an outdoor amphitheater, a covered outdoor basketball court, state-of-the-art classrooms, and administrative offices designed with visibility into the common areas.

A Warm & Spirited Welcome

Principal Christina Riche welcomed the crowd and closed her opening remarks with the line the Royals will carry all year: The Royals have arrived.

She beautifully adapted the words of Proverbs 24:3–4:

“By wisdom a house is built and through understanding it is established. Through knowledge, its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.”

She went on to remark on how each day these doors would open, and the classrooms would come alive with laughter, curiosity, and the endless promise of bright futures.

Jim Maxwell, CEO of Agriland Farming gave the invocation, and Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles closed the morning with a dedicatory prayer over the classrooms, the labs, the athletic facilities, and the teachers who will fill them.

A Reason to Believe

Setting the pace for the day was Todd Lile, Superintendent of Madera Unified School District. He welcomed the distinguished guests and recognized the significance of the moment for Madera Unified, calling attention to the milestone represented by the new school and the high standard reflected in the quality of the institution standing around them.

From Educators to Students

Brigham Young University President Shane Reese and Advancement Vice President Keith Vorkink attended on behalf of King’s alma mater. When Reese took the podium, he quickly shifted his focus away from the trustees, administrators, teachers, and other guests in attendance. Instead, he spoke directly to the students, encouraging them to leave King Husein School with three things: a skill set, integrity, and humility.

To explain the first one, he asked them to picture the inside of a Costco, where you can stand at the entrance and see all the way to the back wall with nothing in the way. “That’s because King Husein used his education to think outside the box,” Reese said.

Every Employee Owner in the room knew that sightline well. It’s The SPAN Experience. It’s the mindset we bring to the jobsite and the office, and the skill set, integrity, and humility we strive for each and every day.

The Legacy Behind the Name

King spoke last among the guest speakers and put his own education at the center of it. He talked about growing up in India, where his father died when he was 11 and his mother taught high school girls machine embroidery on a foot-pedal sewing machine so she could pay for private school for her four children.

He was a C student until an English teacher in his junior year convinced him he could do better, and he finished as an A student, which qualified him for a competitive engineering program and a degree from the University of Bombay.

When it came time to come to America, his mother borrowed $500 from an education trust in India to get him here. He earned his master’s in civil and structural engineering from BYU, found a good job, gained experience, and in 1980 started Span Construction & Engineering, Inc. Spending the rest of his life giving back to the people, the school, and the communities that helped shape the man he is today.

Diane, King’s wife sat near the front with three of their four children, and King told the room she carried the raising of their children while he was busy building the business.

“She has and continues to be my spiritual anchor,” he said, “and has made me a lot better person.”

All four of their children hold college degrees, and King used his oldest son’s story to show students where an education can lead. Omar decided at just six years old that he would become a surgeon, and today he runs a practice in Spokane, Washington. He graduated high school as valedictorian, earned several academic awards, and received Brigham Young University’s highest scholarship. He went on to earn a master’s degree in microbiology and attended medical school at UC San Francisco, followed by a residency at Ohio State and a second medical degree from UC Irvine.

He finished his BYU bachelor’s in three years on a four-year scholarship. King remarked that he should ask the BYU president for a refund on that last year—a joke that sent laughter through the audience.

The lesson King offered was one the students could carry with them well into their adulthood. Put in the work and apply yourself. That will create opportunities. Give your best, and be an example for others. Success becomes even more meaningful when the path you build helps others succeed as well.

Before he finished, King asked SPAN’s management team and leaders to stand and be recognized for the work that has kept the company ranked number one in the steel building industry for more than 34 years.

The First Royals

Student Jordan “King” Taylor brought an extra spark of energy to the ceremony, leading the Pledge of Allegiance with enthusiasm that echoed throughout the room.

While Seventh grader Ximena Delgado spoke on behalf of the student body and thanked King for the land that made the campus possible, describing an art elective in a space unlike anything she had at her previous school. Her class will be the first to promote from eighth grade next spring.

“As students, we feel very lucky to be the first Royals to call King Husein School home,” she said.

Praise & Pride

Congratulations to Madera Unified and the entire Madera community. This school is a reflection of what can be achieved when a community comes together around a shared vision. What was once empty land now stands as a place where future generations will learn, grow, succeed, and thrive.

And thank you, King. For 46 years, you’ve shown both SPAN and this community what it takes to build things meant to last, in both construction and in character. On Friday we got to watch you do it one more time, with the help of many others, in front of 550 kids who now get to call themselves Royals.

Welcome home, Royals. 👑