In 1965, a $300,000 bond issue was passed for the construction of an elementary school. Land was purchased in the western part of the city beginning at the southwestern corner of Fourth and Willis streets to build the new elementary school called West Oaks Elementary. 

Weldon Kline Whitis was asked to open the school in 1966. Mr. Whitis was a graduate of Lampasas High School. After some time in the military, where he served overseas in the Korean War, he earned his Master's degree in Educational Administration, with a minor in psychology, from Southwest Texas State University.  He taught and was an assistant principal at a middle school in Victoria, TX. He returned to Lampasas in 1960 where he taught for six years as a physical education and math teacher. Mr. Whitis served as the principal of West Oaks for 20 years before retiring in 1986. In 1988, West Oaks Elementary was renamed Kline Whitis Elementary in honor of Mr. Whitis.