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Does anyone have any pictures of the Houston Gardens Elementary that is on Homestead Road from the 1960's or 70's?

After years and years of back and forth between HISD, the architects, the school, and the community, this one finally broke ground in late March early April. This is a reconstruction of Bellaire's existing school. Originally part of the 2012 Bond referendum, this is anticipated to finally bring this massive bond to a close. Personally, I'm amazed this one ever got built. Lets just say this wasn't an easy project for those involved to develop, and there was a lot of chaos, but all of that aside the important thing is that its happening. Developer: HISD Architect: PBK Estimated Completion: 2021 (students will move back in), 2022 (final completion) Budget: $106,724,000 Article about groundbreaking (March 28th): https://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/2019/03/28/bellaire-hs-gathers-to-celebrate-start-of-construction-on-new-building/ Site Plan: Render (for some reason the only publicly avaiable render...is of the parking garage portion...oh well)

Old Braeswood POA sent out a notice for a meeting regarding construction of the new DeBakey High School in the medical center. Per the notice it will be built "on the site of the Hornberger Conference Center." I guess this means the last piece of the Shamrock is coming down? Construction is to begin later this year I looked around for some renderings and could only find something on the HISD blog: http://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/2014/06/03/video-highlights-how-design-is-shaping-up-for-new-debakey-high-school/

Another replacement building for an HISD magnet school. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/breaking-ground/2014/10/a-look-inside-one-of-the-coolest-schools-on-the.html

The old Johnston Middle School, JMS, was renamed to Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School a few years back. The school opened in 1959 making it 62 years old. Any word on a demolition and rebuild? Major remodel or renovations planned?

Does anybody know who designed Mirabeau B. Lamar Sr. High School on Westheimer? Who carved the map of the State of Texas abpve the auditorium? Anyone have construction photos or old photos of Lamar?

There is a proposed plan to create a new HSPVA campus downtown at 1300 Capitol. http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/06-22-12-10-43-hisd-bond-with-a-brand-new-downtown-hspva-building/

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We are looking at HISD magnets and vanguards for our son for kindergarten next year. I toured Roberts and loved it, and have heard great reports from many friends with kids there. But it's nearly impossible to magnet into. I was also really impressed by Twain and Kolter, but I don't know anyone with kids there. Can anyone give me their impressions of or experience with these schools?

Can't find a forum thread for this, and because there isn't a subforum for Near Northside I'm going to put it in The Heights for now @editor This is well into construction and per the calendar provided by HISD, it should be completed sometime early next year. This is a large expansion project + renovation/reuse of the existing building on campus. Northside High School was part of the 2012 Bond Referendum. Project link: https://www.houstonisd.org/Page/71972 Developer: HISD Architect: IBI Group Architects Estimated Completion: mid-2019 Budget: $46,764,000 Original Render: Latest Photos from HISD:

I haven't grabbed any photos, but they have torn down most of the building that faces Lockwood. I suspect the rest isn't far behind. Temporary buildings have been up in the area across Lockwood that I guess will house students during the rebuild.

According to the Houston Chronicle & other media sources, veteran HISD Trustee Diana Davila (who also served in the TX State Legislature in the 1990s), was named as the President of the much-maligned governance team & here's how it went out: HISD Board President: Diana Davila HISD Board 1st VP: Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca HISD Board 2nd VP: Elizabeth Santos HISD Board Secretary: Sergio Lira HISD Board Assistant Secretary: Sue Deigaard https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/Veteran-trustee-D-vila-chosen-president-of-13543298.php https://www.houstonpress.com/news/last-night-top-hisd-board-positions-go-to-hispanic-trustees-11194151 Let me know your thoughts on this developments as HISD is still searching for a permanent Superintendent. I think the odds are Lathan is NOT getting the job full-time.

In case you've been living under a rock during the Christmas holiday break, TX Governor Greg Abbott (R), in a scathing tweet on Twitter, put Houston ISD's failed leadership on full-blast. He also slammed the district's leaders for "self-centered ineptitude" & rallied for the State on taking over the school district's Board of Trustees. I believe that Abbott's right on this one for obvious reasons: the recent ugly racially-polarized battle over the demotion of Houston ISD Interim Superintendent Dr. Grenita Latham in favor of former Houston ISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra from a few months ago(who recently left San Antonio ISD & refused to return to his old job in Houston due to the backlash) which spiraled out of control following racial divisions between the African American & Latino Houston ISD School Board members: later the Board of Trustees voted to keep Latham as the Interim Superintendent. State Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) is pushing legislation which could eliminate single-member district in favor of At-Large Districts including other measures. Like to know your thoughts on Abbott calling out Houston ISD & calling for statewide takeover of the State's largest school district ? https://www.texastribune.org/2019/01/03/texas-gov-greg-abbott-take-over-houston-isd/ https://abc13.com/education/gov-abbott-says-houston-isd-leadership-is-a-disaster/5011215/ A.) Love It B.) Hate It C.) TBD

HISD School Board of Trustees voted last night to give Grenita Lathan the boot & brought back former HISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra to his old job. https://abc13.com/education/shake-up-saavedra-back-to-hisd-after-board-ousts-lathan/4464686/ Thoughts on the news ? A.) Love It B.) Hate It C.) Wait & See Approach

I noticed that Jack Yates High School recently got a new Principal in Tiffany Guillory. The big question is whatever happened to Kenneth Davis ? If anybody who is an alumnus of Yates High School knows the situation. Let me know what happened ? https://www.houstonisd.org/Yates

I was in class of 93 there and I suppose I started this thread cause I read some great ones on other schools. It would be cool to find someone who went there at the time around me. Lanier was something else. The building was magnificent and historic; 1929 was when they built it. As a kid I was just overwhelmed by how big the school was. Anyway, what are your memories of the school and who are the standout teachers? The school used to be so segregated in terms of who came there to learn something and who came there to eat lunch and go to gym. The vangaurd program was not all that hard but just involved tons of busy work. I think I did more homework there than in all of high school and college combined. I do recall that they used to burglarize the lockers in the gym dressing rooms quite a bit. The juvenile criminals were so brazen they would do it out in the open with everyone watching. They are probably in adult prisons being sodomized each day these days so oh well. Of the teachers a few stand out in my mind after all of these years: Mr. Siros - I will remember this guy till the day I die. He taught theater arts on the 3rd floor in that room with college style seating and painted all black. Whenever he was losing an argument or the class got loud he would scream "hey" and everyone would shutup. When we were in other classes you could hear this guy screaming from down the hall and you knew he was going insane. Mr. Siegel - 7th grade English lit. He was dating the Spanish teacher Ms. Barazi from across the hall for a while but when she dumped him he decided to become gay overnight. The dude was really creepy and would talk about weird stuff like how rubbing oil on your body to tan is dangerous in the sun. WTF? Mr. Wilson - 8th grade reading This guy was AWESOME! His clothes were always ironed to perfection and he spoke so well meaning he varied sentance structure and used advance vocabulary at a middle school level. His professionalism rubbed off on his students and I am so glad I decided to take his class instead of a foreign language so I could take an extra year of gym in high school. Mrs. Klemm/Ms. Miller - she was the 6th grade math teacher that had all sorts of love life problems. I think she was divorcing her husband while we were in her class. Anyway, she had an obsession with alcohol bottles that squirt to clean the slides on overhead projectors. The immage of dry erase marker watered up is burned in my mind for life. Mr. Yeargin - 8th grade English Lit. ...this guy was way too sophisticated and polsihed to be an 8th grade teacher. I felt pity for the man cause the students never respected him. I suppose having been forced to read Charles Dickens and Bronte bothered the kids and I admit I did not like it at the time as well. I dunno, this guy seemed highly intelligent to me. Mr. Garret - 7th grade science....he was working on his masters to get to become a marine biologist so he did not care much about what we learned or did in class. Rice uinversity had built a science lab in Lanier and we were using email to talk to kids in the UK back in 1992 (a very high tech thing for 13 yrd olds at the time). The emails were just BS....not a hint of educational content...more along the lines of "Hi how are you?" "Fine and you?"......This guy used to give etra credit like crazy and make us hold it until grade cycles were ending. Then you took up the papers he signed and he added your points. He issued so much EC people ended up with 108 points on a 100 point scale. He always made sex jokes as well. Mr. Holliger - WORST teacher in the school. I understand he is still there. He went to UT and played basketball there until his knees went out. God this guy only taught chemistry and physics to the 2 kids in the room that got 100% of what he was saying. He would have these TAs work as slaves for him to write his notes and lessons.

Does anyone have information on Spring Branch ISD's bond project estimates? It's weird that they a haven't released that besides requesting A&E services for their entire bond.

Does anyone have a good, high-res photo of the old HISD Headquarters building at Richmond & Weslayan which they are willing to share for the Heritage Society to use in an educational video? We will put you in the credits. It's for a new HAM Slice of History on mid-century architecture in Houston.

The revolving door from Houston TV News Stations to HISD could start a trend: Ch. 13 Reporter Tracy Clemons will be leaving the ABC O&O Station after just 3 years & heading to HISD. He joins former Univision 45 KXLN-TV Weekend Anchor Rebecca Suarez, who joined HISD not too long ago. http://mikemcguff.blogspot.com/2017/07/tracy-clemons-joins-hisd-from-ktrk-abc13.html http://abc13.com/ Your thoughts on Clemons leaving Ch. 13 & going to HISD ?

In case you've been living under a rock to start the Summer, Univision 45 KXLN-TV Anchor & Reporter Rebecca Suarez has left the TV Biz once again & will be returning to HISD.... to become the new chief communications officer under HISD Superintendent Richard Carranza, according to the HISD news blog. Suarez, a 13-time Lone Star Emmy Award winner, had been with Univision 45 as the station's Weekend Anchor & Reporter & has more than 15 years of experience in media & communications. She is a former HISD staff member, having served as the district's primary spokesperson for Spanish-language media, senior media relations specialist, & community affairs TV host. Suarez also worked as Anchor & Reporter for NBC Telemundo (KTMD-TV 47). She started her new job on June 5th. http://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/2017/04/21/hisd-names-new-chief-communications-officer/ http://mikemcguff.blogspot.com/2017/06/rebecca-suarez-leaves-univision-houston-kxln-returns-hisd.html

The Houston Independent School District's chief auditor was allowed to return to work Wednesday, 5 months after the board suspended him for alleged misconduct & ordered an investigation. Despite the reinstatement of Richard Patton, his attorney, David Feldman, said the district owes him a public apology for an "unnecessary" investigation that appeared to focus on the auditor asking his assistant to scan some personal documents for him using work equipment. Feldman also expressed concern that Patton's responsibilities seem to have been scaled back, a move he called an attempt "to further silence the man who is supposed to be your watchdog." The ongoing tension sets the stage for a possible courtroom battle. Patton had filed a grievance against the district over his suspension in June, asking for his job back & alleging he was being retaliated against for reporting suspected illegal activity involving HISD business to law enforcement. Feldman said at the time that if the grievance did not fix matters, Patton would file a whistleblower lawsuit against HISD. Thoughts on the Patton controversy surrounding HISD ? A.) Like it B.) Hated it C.) Wait & see approach

Ladies & gentlemen, just wanted to know if y'all heard about the decision by the HISD School Board, who voted last night to rename 3 more schools with ties to the Confederacy. I want your reaction to these developments: http://abc13.com/education/hisd-to-rename-3-more-schools-with-confederate-ties/1197316/ Predicting some of the alumni of these high schools are going to file a lawsuit with backing from TX State Attorney General Ken Paxton [R] & Co.,

Carnegie Vanguard High School Site Approved December 17, 2009 HISD has been planning a replacement campus for Carnegie Vanguard High School since 2007, when it was made a part of the Facilities Capital Program. On December 10, 2009, the Board of Education approved building the replacement school on vacant district-owned property just south of the Gregory-Lincoln Education Center. Carnegie Vanguard High School is currently located on the former Carnegie Elementary School campus at Scott Street and Airport Boulevard, adjacent to Sims Bayou. A new location for the school was decided on for several reasons. Most of that property and the surrounding area are within a Harris County Flood Control flood plain. Replacing Carnegie Vanguard on the same site would require relocating students to an off-site temporary campus during construction. There would also be additional costs and a reduction in usable land area related to building in the flood plain. Construction time and costs for the Gregory-Lincoln site will be reduced because the work will not involve demolition of existing buildings or relocation of students to a temporary campus. In addition, students attending Carnegie Vanguard come from all parts of the district, so a central location like the one the board approved will be more accessible to the majority of students and reduce transportation costs. Also, Carnegie Vanguard and Gregory-Lincoln can combine their separate parking facilities for evening events, and the Gregory-Lincoln kitchen could prepare meals for both schools. Located at Taft and West Gray, the new Carnegie Vanguard site was originally purchased for replacement of the High School for Performing and Visual Arts. However, other locations that are even more favorable for HSPVA are being considered, and private fund-raising, to match future district funding, is gaining momentum. "I am confident that this new arrangement will be beneficial to everyone concerned," said Superintendent of Schools Terry B. Grier. Article clipped from the www.hisd.org website and posted by: K M Harris County, Precinct 33 Presiding Judge To learn more about Carnegie Vanguard HS click on http://www.vanguard ian.org/ this was a post on my neighborhood yahoo group--

8 names that have adorned Houston school buildings, uniforms, & yearbooks for decades will be vanished forever next year after trustees came together last night to approve new ones without Confederate ties. The renaming decisions followed months of controversy that had split the school board, heightened racial tensions, & fueled mixed reactions from parents, students & alumni. Before the votes Thursday, however, the 4 trustees who initially opposed the renaming process, criticizing the lack of community input, said they would back away from their resistance; in some cases, they abstained. "Let's come together & take this energy & really steer it toward our students," said trustee Greg Meyers, who previously opposed the renaming items, "We'll get past this. No matter what the name, it's what happens inside." Here's the list of the renamed schools: Margaret Long Wisdom High School (currently Lee High School) Meyerland Performing & Visual Arts Middle School (currently Johnston Middle School) Yolanda Black Navarro Middle School of Excellence (currently Jackson Middle School) Heights High School (currently Reagan High School) Audrey Hoffman Lawson Middle School (currently Dowling Middle School) Bob Lanier Middle School (currently Sidney Lanier Middle School) Northside High School (currently Davis High School) Tanglewood Middle School (currently Grady Middle School) Any thoughts on the new changes ? http://abc13.com/education/hisd-approves-name-changes-for-seven-schools/1336016/

Any reaction from everyone on the surprising announcement of HISD Superintendent Terry Grier stepping down from his job after 6 years ? http://www.click2houston.com/community/newsmakers/houston-newsmakers-sept-13-hisd-superintendent-grier-resigns/35253888 http://abc13.com/education/hisd-superintendent-terry-grier-stepping-down/977933/ Interview with Rhonda Skillern-Jones on Grier stepping down as HISD Superintendent & the District's future: http://blog.chron.com/kuffsworld/2015/09/interview-with-rhonda-skillern-jones-2/