The Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States.¹ Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and insular municipalities.

In the 2004–2005 school year, HISD had 302 campuses, approximately 209,000 students and over 12,000 teachers. With over 30,000 employees, HISD is one of the largest employers in the city of Houston.

History

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The first Hattie Mae White Administration Building. It has been sold and demolished. The building was replaced by the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center.

Houston ISD was established in the 1920s, after the Texas Legislature voted to separate school and municipal governments. Houston ISD replaced the Harrisburg School District.

Houston ISD absorbed portions of the White Oak Independent School District in 1937 and portions of the Addicks Independent School District after its dissolution.

Houston ISD was desegregated by 1970. Some Hispanics felt they were being discriminated against when they were being put with only African Americans as part of the desegregation plan, so many took their children out of the schools and put them in "huelgas," or protest schools², until a ruling in 1973 satisfied their demands.

In 1994, after superintendent Frank Petruzielo left the district, the school district voted 6-1 to make Yvonne Gonzalez the interim superintendent; the school district board members described this as a "symbolic" motion as Gonzalez was the first Hispanic interim superintendent. Gonzalez served until Rod Paige became the superintendent.³⁴

Secession movements

In 1977, group of citizens in western Houston tried to form Westheimer Independent School District out of a portion of Houston ISD. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected the appeals after formation of the district was denied.

HISD once served the Harris County portion of Stafford, until the Stafford Municipal School District was established in 1982 to serve the entire city of Stafford. Most of Stafford was in Fort Bend ISD, with a small amount in Houston ISD.⁵

Reporting of school violence

A 2003 The New York Times report which asserted that HISD did not report school violence to the police created controversy in the community as teachers, students, and parents expressed concern about the district's downplaying of campus violence. ⁶ HISD officials held a news conference after the publication of the story. During the conference, HISD asserted that The New York Times published the story in an attempt to discredit the Bush administration's new accountability standards for school districts nationwide, which were partly modeled after HISD's system.

School performance

HISD's performance in the late 1990s and 2000s was dubbed the "Houston Miracle" by the media. A 2003 state audit of HISD's performance caused more controversy. One of the district's most publicized accomplishments during the Paige era was a dramatic reduction in dropout rates. When 16 secondary schools, including Sharpstown High School, were audited, it was found that most of the students who left school from those schools in 2000-2001 should have been counted as dropouts, but were not. It was found that the administrators at Sharpstown deliberately changed the dropout rate at the school. The Sharpstown controversy resulted in a recommendation to label the entire HISD as "unacceptable." Former Sharpstown Assistant Principal Robert Kimball, found by an external investigator to have been involved in the false reporting, asserts that HISD coerced administrators at many schools to lie on dropout rates. HISD asserts that the fraud is only contained to Sharpstown, and that the false statistics at other schools were caused by confusion related to the state's system of tracking students who leave school.^{7 8}

An article in The New York Times disputed the accuracy and usage of survey figures from Yates High School and Sharpstown High School indicating that close to 100% of the students intended to attend universities.⁹

Hurricane Katrina

In 2005, HISD enrolled evacuees from the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina who were residing in Houston. The Houston Astrodome, the shelter used for hurricane evacuees, is located within the HISD boundaries.

Many Katrina evacuees stayed for the long term within the Houston ISD boundaries. Walnut Bend Elementary School's enrollment increased from around 600 to around 800 with the addition of 184 evacuees; Walnut Bend, out of all of the Houston-area elementary schools, took the most Katrina victims ¹⁰. Nearby Paul Revere Middle School, located in the Westchase district, gained 137 Katrina victims. Revere, out of all of the Houston-area middle schools, has taken in the most Katrina victims.

Houston ISD's "West Region," which includes Walnut Bend and Revere, had about 1/5th of Houston ISD's schools but contained more than half of the 5,500 evacuees in Houston schools.

At the start of the 2006-2007 school year, around 2,900 Hurricane Katrina evacuees were still enrolled in Houston ISD schools. Around 700 of them were held back due to poor academic performance. 41% of evacuee 10th graders and 52% of evacuee juniors were held back.

According to the October 2006 "For Your Information" newsletter, the eleven HISD schools which took the largest number of evacuees were:

• Elementary schools: Bonham, Foerster, McNamara, Walnut Bend
• Middle schools: Fondren, Revere, Sharpstown Middle
• High schools: Lee, Sharpstown High, Westbury, Westside

District organization

On December 1, 1994, HISD board members voted to divide HISD into 12 numbered geographic districts; of eleven districts, each district had one to three high schools. The 12th district was an alternative district.¹¹

Prior to Summer 2005, HISD had 13 administrative districts. Originally, the number of districts were to be cut to three, but HISD decided on cutting the number to five in fall 2005.^{citation needed}

New administration building

Houston ISD's administration building from July 1970 to March 2006 was the Hattie Mae White Administration Building (located at 3830 Richmond Avenue), and was labelled the "Taj Mahal" due to the confusing layout of the complex. The 201,150-square-foot (18,687 m²) complex cost six million United States dollars. The building had tropical indoor atriums, causing critics to criticize the spending priorities of the district. When the district considered cutting a popular kindergarten program for financial reasons, taxpayers voted many board members out of office.

The administration moved into a new complex in northwest Houston (located at 4400 West 18th Street) in spring 2006. The district sold the old complex for $38 million to a company which plans to demolish the site and develop mixed-use commercial property; demolition began on September 14, 2006. Demolition crews demolished the Will Rogers Elementary School, an adjacent elementary school located at 3101 Weslayan that closed in spring 2006.

Houston ISD named the new administration building "Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center".¹²

Declining enrollment figures in the 2000s

The preliminary fall enrollment for the 2006-2007 school year (203,163) had 7,000 fewer students than the 2005-2006 student enrollment (210,202), resulting in a more than 3% loss; the 2006-2007 enrollment was a 2.5% decrease from the fall 2004-2005 enrollment (208,454). From the preliminary 2006-2007 student count, the West and Central regions lost the most students, with a combined 4,400 student loss.¹³ The enrollment reported for the year in February 2007 was 202,936.¹⁴

Micro Systems Enterprises

In 2007 the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Communications Commission, and the United States Department of Justice began an investigation probing business relationships between Micro Systems Enterprises, a vendor, and HISD. Frankie Wong, former president of Micro Systems, and two Dallas Independent School District administrators received criminal charges.¹⁵

Free breakfast programs

In the 2000s HISD established "Breakfast in the Classroom." The program was replaced with a free breakfast program based in cafeterias.¹⁶ The Houston Press published a story about accounting irregularities regarding a program; the State of Texas announced it would investigate the program. On February 4, 2005, Abelardo Saavedra announced that the program was suspended.¹⁷ By 2006 HISD resumed its free breakfast programs.¹⁸

Bilingual education and magnet and Vanguard schools

Houston ISD West Region Office

HISD is highly regarded for the bilingual education of its predominantly Hispanic student body, including recruiting about 330 teachers from Mexico, Spain, Central and South America, Puerto Rico, China, and the Philippines from 1998 to 2007.¹⁹

Magnet schools began in the 1970s as a way to voluntarily integrate schools. By the mid-1990s many magnet schools no longer held this goal and instead focused on improving educational quality of schools.²⁰

HISD's magnet (Performing Arts, Science, Health Professions, Law Enforcement, etc) high schools are considered a model for other urban school districts as a way to provide a high quality education and keep top performing students in the inner city from fleeing to private schools or exurban school districts. Magnet schools are popular with parents and students that wish to escape low-performing schools and school violence. The members of the administration of schools losing students to higher-performing campuses, such as Bill Miller of Yates High School, complained about the effects ²¹.

There are 55 elementary magnet schools, 30 magnet middle schools, and 27 magnet high schools. Some magnet schools are mixed comprehensive and magnet programs, while others are solidly magnet and do not admit any "neighborhood" students.

Student body

In February 2008, Houston ISD reported a total enrollment of 199,534 ²².

• 120,327 (60.3%) were Hispanic American
• 57,678 (28.4%) were African-American
• 16,018 (8.0%) were Anglo American
• 6,365 (3.2%) were Asian American
• 146 (.1%) were Native American

Governance

As of 2008, the superintendent of Houston ISD is Abelardo Saavedra.

As of 2008 the members of the HISD Board of Education are:

• President: Harvin C. Moore
• First Vice President: Paula M. Harris
• Second Vice President: Natasha M. Kamrani
• Secretary: Carol Mims Galloway
• Assistant Secretary: Lawrence Marshall

Other members include: Diana Dávila, Greg Meyers, Dianne Johnson, and Manuel Rodríguez Jr..

Superintendents

Rod Paige, former Houston ISD Superintendent

Former HISD superintendent Rod Paige used the PEER Program. Improving scores from its schools have caused a lot of praise from others nationwide. Kaye Stripling took over when Rod Paige headed to Washington, DC as part of United States President George W. Bush's administration cabinet. After Stripling stepped down as the interim Superintendent, Abelardo Saavedra became the superintendent of the district on December 9, 2004.

Political divisions

Schools in Houston ISD are organized into "Regional Districts". Each district has its own Regional Superintendent.

There are five regional districts in Houston ISD:

• Central Regional District
• East Regional District
• North Regional District
• South Regional District
• West Regional District

Houston ISD television channel

Houses in the Houston ISD area get the Houston ISD channel on cable ²³.

• Channel 18 of Comcast
• Channel 76 of Phonoscope Communications
• Channel 96 of TV Max
• Channel 18 of Cebridge

HISD coverage area

Lamar High School

Bellaire High School

The district covers most of the greater-Houston area, including all of the cities of Bellaire, West University Place, Southside Place, and most of the area within the Houston city limits. HISD also takes students from the Harris County portion of Missouri City, a portion of Jacinto City, a small portion of Hunters Creek Village, a small portion of Piney Point Village, and a small portion of Pearland. HISD also takes students from unincorporated areas of Harris County. The district covers 300.2 square miles (778 km²) of land.

All of the HISD area lies within the taxation area for the Houston Community College System.

Cities

Houston ISD covers all of the following municipalities:

• Bellaire
• Southside Place
• West University Place

Houston ISD covers portions of the following municipalities:

• Houston (the majority of Houston, including much of the inside Loop area falls under HISD)
• Hunters Creek Village (areas south of Buffalo Bayou are HISD)
• Jacinto City (areas north of Market street are in Houston ISD)
• Missouri City (Harris County portion only)
• Pearland (A section of the Harris County portion)
• Piney Point Village (areas south of Buffalo Bayou are HISD)

HISD also covers unincorporated sections of Harris County.

Transportation

A Houston ISD CE300 school bus made by IC Corporation.

Houston ISD grants school bus transportation to any Houston ISD resident attending his or her zoned school or attending a magnet program who lives 2 mi (3.2 km) or more away from the campus (as measured by the nearest public roads) or must cross treacherous obstacles in order to reach the campus. Certain special education students are also permitted to use school bus transportation. ²⁴

Prior to fall 2007, METRO issued Go Card passes for students enrolled in schools.²⁵ Since fall 2007, METRO instead issues rechargeable cards called "Q Card"s for students.

List of schools

• Main article: List of Houston Independent School District schools

In HISD grades kindergarten through 5 are considered to be elementary school, grades 6 through 8 are considered to be middle school, and grades 9 through 12 are considered to be high school. Some elementary schools go up to the sixth grade.

Every house in HISD is assigned to an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. HISD has many alternative programs and transfer options available to students who want a specialized education and/or dislike their home schools.

Notable employees and teachers

• Laura Bush, a teacher at Kennedy Elementary School who later became the First Lady of the United States²⁶
• Edison E. Oberholtzer, former superintendent, founder and first president of the University of Houston
• Alberto Gonzales, chair of the Commission for District Decentralization, later became United States Attorney General²⁷
• Rod Paige, former superintendent, became the United States Secretary of Education

Accidents and incidents

As of 2008, there are two incidents at Houston ISD that have had student fatalities:

• September 15, 1959: Poe Elementary School attack - Paul Orgeron detonated a bomb at Poe Elementary School in Houston, killing three children, two staff members, and himself.
• October 20, 1999: At Deady Middle School, 14-year old Estanislao Balderas stabbed 13-year old Samuel Avila in the head with a screwdriver. Avila died of his injuries. Balderas was arrested and prosecuted. The victim's parents, Andres Avila River and Ana Maria Avila, sued the district, asserting that the district violated their son's due process rights. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed the statement of the Avilas and ruled in favor of Houston ISD. ²⁸

Non-fatal incidents include:

• November 14, 1991: 18-year old Francisco Contreras received four gunshot wounds in his feet and leg outside of the cafeteria at Milby High School. Police arrested a 16-year old "disturbed freshman."²⁹
• February 9, 2006: A 26-year old man named Ronald Walker raped a 15-year old girl in a second-floor toilet facility at Westbury High School. Walker pled guilty to the charge ³⁰.
• February 24, 2006: One male 9th grade student stabbed another 9th grader at Bellaire High School. The victim survived the stabbing while the perpetrator was arrested and prosecuted.³¹
• November 12, 2007: Larry Paul Newton, a mentally ill man, appeared on the property of Lamar High School before classes and injured 14-year old Catherine Sullivan, a female Lamar student, by stabbing her arm. Several male students aided Sullivan by beating and holding the attacker. An HISD police officer subdued Newton, leading to his arrest. ³² Sullivan received sutures after the attack ³³.

See also

Houston portal

• List of school districts in Texas
• List of schools in Harris County, Texas
• Houston Area Independent Schools — association of Houston-area private schools.

References

External links

• HISD Homepage
• Alumni Information for all HISD Schools
• HISD Virtual School
• HISD Library Services
• HISD Tax Office
• HISD Benefits
• Think HISD
• Houston ISD Social Studies
• The Central Region
• The Wren (West Region Education News)
• List of schools in the HISD from GreatSchools.net

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