VicMan

I read a lot of Shadow Star (a comic book series about kids with dragon pets that explores cruelty and desperation in humans) only to find about this.

Did Ritcheson plan to commit suicide? Or did he feel so depressed that moment that he jumped?

It is in Houston ISD.

It is zoned to:

* Memorial ES

* Hogg MS

* Reagan HS

the numbers in the 2 you mentioned are easily absorbed. there are several schools you missed as well. BTW no elementary schools feed into high schools unless times have changed.

I purposefully didn't get any that only feed into Milby (Which is also part of the East End), since that area hasn't seen a crunch of students yet.

As for feeder patterns, elementary schools indirectly feed into high schools through middle schools - schools in all three grade levels have separate attendance zones.

I DID forget to mention one school - Bruce Elementary School ( http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/schoolboundarymaps/BruceES.pdf ) is a part of the Wheatley feeder pattern. Some of the Warehouse district area was formerly zoned to Anson Jones Elementary School. That campus closed in 2006, and most of the boundary (including much of that Warehouse District territory and about a third of Downtown Houston) was received by Bruce Elementary School in the Fifth Ward. Bruce received a brand new campus. The rest was received by Rusk. That reminds me - Rusk has more kids due to A. Jones closing, so the previous numbers do not reflect the campus now.

So, of all of the ones I saw on the East End list, Peck ES (Actually in the Third Ward) looks like a good candidate for closing.

Looking at this map reveals that Brookline ES, MacArthur ES, and Hartsfield ES are potential merger candidates: http://www.houstonisd.org/FederalStateComp...s/HISDESmap.pdf

As for other schools to close, let's look at Blackshear ES (and compare it to Ryan MS, which should be merged)

Blackshear ES:

* 388 in 05-06 (Down from 578 in 01-02) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Blackshear_ES.pdf

* Below average in Kindergarten and Grade 6, at average at Grade 1, above average at Grades 2, 4-5, N/A at Grade 3: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3354

Ryan MS:

* 581 (down from 830 in 01-02) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Ryan_MS.pdf

* Below average in Foreign Language and Science, above average in Grade 6, English, Mathematics, and Social Science: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3509

As Ryan MS has the middle school athletic facilities and the historic building, Blackshear ES should be merged into Ryan MS to form a Ryan K-8. In addition, the portion of the J. Will Jones attendance zone outside of Downtown and east of 288 should be rezoned to Ryan MS/K-8.

As for other Third Ward-area campuses, Foster and Thompson elementary schools have new campuses, so those schools should be left alone.

The rebuilt schools have, as of 05-06

* Foster ES: 457 (down from 664) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Foster_ES.pdf

* Thompson ES: 700 (down from 736) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Thompson_ES.pdf

With the remaining schools considered:

Increasing in 5 years

* Lockhart ES

** 478 (up from 463) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Lockhart_ES.pdf

Decreased in 5 years

* Hartsfield ES

** 357 (down from 427) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Hartsfield_ES.pdf

* MacArthur ES

** 391 (down from 426) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Mcarthur_ES.pdf

* Turner ES

** 327 (down from 550) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Turner_ES.pdf

* Whidby ES

** 605 (down from 645) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Whidby_ES.pdf - I would not close this school yet

No they wouldn't. If it went down the middle of the freeway, it would take them all the way in. The commuter rail isn't all about time either. It saves money (don't have to use gas money).

The important part about determining the commute of a commuter rail customer is the location of automobile parking. A Park and Ride could be established closer to residences of commuters than commuter rail parking.

that is a change. notice it only runs for a portion of the day though

I noticed that the METRORail trains become crowded during rush hour. Maybe that is part of the reason why the shuttles were re-established.

The schools in the east end are crowded...at least those around me. increasing class size would save space.

Let's see the population counts of the schools in the East End.

The following feed partially or completely into Austin High School, which lost its 5A sports status due to student losses.

Schools that completely feed into Austin High School with their total populations and class sizes:

* Burnet

** 713 in 05-06 (down from 810 in 01-02) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Burnet_ES.pdf

** Kindergarten, Grades 4 and 6 are below state average, Grade 1 is at state average, Grades 2-3, 5 are above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3367

* Cage

** 726 (down from 797) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Cage_ES.pdf

** Grade 2 at state average, Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grades 3-5 above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3567

* Carrillo

** 725 (down from 861) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Carillo_ES.pdf

** Grades 2 and 3 below state average, Kindergarten, Grades 1, 4-5 above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3556

* Franklin

** 691 (down from 748) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Franklin_ES.pdf

** Kindergarten, Grades 1-2, 4-5 below state average, Grades 3 and 6 above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3406

Schools that partially feed into Austin High School:

* Briscoe

** 513 (down from 586) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Briscoe_ES.pdf

** Kindergarten, Grade 2 below state average, Grades 1, 3-6 avove state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3360

* Brookline

** 980 (down from 1,388) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Brookline_ES.pdf

** Kindergarten, Grades 1-4 below state average, Grade 5 above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3362

* Dodson

** 512 (down from 576) - Note, was 431 in 04-05, absorbed students from Douglass ES after the closure

** Kindergarten, Grades 3-4 are below state average, Grade 2 is at state average, Grades 1 and 5 are above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3386

* Gallegos

** 599 (down from 793) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Gallegos_ES.pdf

** Grade 5 below state average, Grade 4 at state average, Kindergarten, Grades 1-3 above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3335

* J. P. Henderson

** 740 (down from 743) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/JPHenderson_ES.pdf

** Kindergarten, Grades 2-3, 5 below average, Grades 1 and 4 above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3423

* Lantrip

** 751 (down from 858) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Lantrip_ES.pdf

** Grade 5 is below average, Kindergarten and Grades 2-4 at state average, Grade 1 above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3451

* Peck

** 341 (down from 351) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Peck_ES.pdf

** Kindergarten through Grade 5 is above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3485

* Rusk (In fall 2006 Rusk absorbed some students from A. Jones ES, so the numbers here are prior to fall 2006)

** 285 (down from 360) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Rusk_ES.pdf

** Kindergarten, Grades 1-2, 5-6 below state average, Grades 3-4 at state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3507 (NOTE: 5th Grade class average is 5!)

* Tijerina

** 716 (down from 840) - http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Tijerina_ES.pdf

** Grades 2-3 below state average, Grades 1, 4, and 6 at state average, Kindergarten, Grade 5 above state average: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/tx/other/3564

Of them all, it looks like Rusk and Peck look like the most likely candidates to close. Do you agree, musicman?

* EDIT: Rusk absorbed some students from A. Jones ES in 2006, so the above number for Rusk is not an accurate picture of the school as of writing

Wow.

Strong reaction to something that is pretty much main stream today.

I'm guessing you all don't have kids. This isn't an unusual arrangment - more the rule than the exception.

Really? I do not remember this happening at any of the schools I attended.

How about this: In exchange for one billion in repairs, HISD should close a certain number of schools to cut maintenance costs. HISD should especially close schools in the Third Ward, Midtown (I.E. J. Will Jones), Northside Village, and East End areas.

HISD should convert some closed campuses into preschools (I.E. what happened to Brock ES and Concord ES) in order to maximize usage of its facilities.

HISD should preferably close poorly-maintained and non-historic campuses.

Now, what TheNiche describes could be a possibility in many rail scenarios.

But, almost all of the facilities of the Texas Medical Center are along or reasonably close to the rail line and the three TMC stops. This HISD map shows locations of hospitals and the rail system: http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/schoolbounda...s/RobertsES.pdf

TheNiche, what was/were the shuttle route(s)? We can compare it to this map

There are dozens of factors, many describing the differential sources of ridership in a build vs. no-build analysis that have small incremental effects, but that far exceed just the ridership figures by themselves. For instance, with the folks that used a shuttle to get from Smithlands to the TMC, they receive relatively little actual time savings from the LRT being in place, and in fact many that don't work immediately along the LRT line still have to transfer to a shuttle at the TMC Transit Center--and that they have to use multiple modes to get where the could previously go with only one mode actually makes them worse off than before. So what was the marginal benefit for the average Smithlands-to-TMC transit rider by implementing LRT? VERY LOW, if any. Yet, the cost of providing that service was quite high. Cases like that can create situations where the cost/benefit ratios are really very low even with high levels of ridership. The same applies to a lot of Midtowners that had their trolley service cut. And frankly, any good analysis would include a measure of the net differential impact to congestion levels.

Frankly, if you want a single variable that is more important than ridership in the analysis, cost is it. There are just way to many contributing variables to the benefit side of the equation.

I could be far more explicit and pedantic, believe me, but I am not so inclined. If you don't get at least the jist of what I'm saying by now, with as many posts as I've already made explaining these points, fine. Feel free to wallow in dull simplicity. I can't help you.

I can understand a renaming if:

* The school is a new campus with a new attendance boundary

* The school is named after a person who has been found to commit a horrid deed (Why it is often not a good idea to name a school after a living person)

* The school is a consolidation of two or more existing schools.

But this renaming does not need to happen.

The coroner later states that the peanut kiss did not kill Desforges: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...0303?hub=Canada

As a person with a nut allergy, I support and applaude KISD for banning peanuts in the schools. I know that PB & J is a staple for many kids, but for a few, it could be deadly. Unfortunately, I'm not being over-dramatic. The following is a story that occured a few years ago in Canada.

Girl dies after kissing boyfriend who ate peanut butter sandwich

The number of people with food allergies is on the rise, and science hasn't figured out why yet. There is also an organization that is trying to help with understanding and curing food allergies food allergy network

We need to make it clear to the people along the I-10 corridor that a bullet sight is on their houses - as in someday (Maybe 10 or 20 years from now) someone's houses will be destroyed to make a rail corridor - Hey, METRO already paid TXDOt $10 million.

She's open to pretty much any district, but would like to end up at a school/district where the parents are typically quite involved with their children's education.

Some Houston ISD schools have high levels of parental involvement - this is more typical of schools in wealthier districts (i.e. River Oaks, City of West University Place, City of Bellaire, Uptown Houston) - Most of the HISD schools are low income, and many of them do not have parental involvement. If she wants to work in HISD, she ought to find a school (or set of schools) that she wishes to teach at before being hired.

Spring Branch ISD is mostly wealthy (and parentally involved) south of I-10. After a specific point north of I-10, SBISD schools are mostly lower income and mostly Hispanic. I do not know the parental involvement in the north of I-10 area.

Pasadena ISD has a lower income, mostly Hispanic north (i.e. Pasadena HS, Sam Rayburn HS, South Houston HS). The southside of the district (i.e. Dobie HS and Pasadena Memorial HS) is still mostly middle class and mixed between White and Hispanic. I do not know the parental involvement in PISD.

Alief ISD and Aldine ISD have uniformly "inner city" demographics. I do not know the parental involvement levels in these two districts.

North Forest ISD, small but extremely turbulent, should be avoided at all costs. Read about the scandal about firing and being forced to rehire James Simpson.

Clear Creek ISD and Katy ISD seem to be mostly uniformly middle class, and she should not have trouble finding parental involvement in the districts. Klein ISD north of Cypress Creek, The Woodlands section of Conroe ISD, and almost all of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD are middle class as well, and she should look into those districts if she wants to teach in a suburban environment.

Yes, Houston ISD is considering renaming Bowie Elementary School (a feeder elementary school for Key Middle School and Kashmere High School) to Rod Paige Elementary School: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headli...ckCurrentPage=2

The move does not look popular on Chron.com; remember that Paige gained controversy with the Sharpstown HS dropout rate cover up and his actions as George W. Bush's first Secretary of Education.

I would assume some of the burbs would pay the most, but I always here about how HISD & Alief give out big bonuses & encentive pay to get the teachers to teach in the hood. Vicman is always posting stuff about school districts & what not, perhaps he would know?

All of the districts have their pay schedules online. I remember HISD as being somewhere in the middle.

Which districts is she considering teaching at?

Are you serious? That is one of the craziest things I've heard. No one apart of Katy ISD can engage in peanut products because a very low percentage of students are allergic? What does that have to do with the majority of everyone else or students?

I heard that people with nut allergies are EXTREMELY sensitive, and very small traces of peanuts can cause reactions.

Still, I'm not sure about the best way to deal with this...

Did you leave the TV on and the lights on? This keeps burglars away.

I wish CCTV cameras were affordable for homeowners to install - If that was the case, you could send a copy of a video showing the face of the guy who robbed your house to the police and then air the video on Youtube.

I wish those automatic machine guns seen in the video game "Goldeneye 007" were real. Those would be great deterrents to burglars.

* Note: In some levels there are these blue machine guns mounted on walls that have cameras attached. If James Bond (the player's character) gets too close to the gun, the gun moves towards Bond and shoots at him.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=...&id=5436163

Benton's attorneys assert that, even if she is let free, she will never be safe in Houston again. Do you agree with her attorneys?

Anyway, part of the reason why I posted the topic is that I want to know how to deal with behavior from street punks and inner city thugs if I encounter any activity (or remnants of activity, such as graffiti) while I travel to other neighborhoods outside of my normal turf to eat at specific restaurants or to perform special errands.

I have seen minor tagging in my area, but I never see specific thug graffiti.

Name it after Hap Harrington. Was a great principal when I was there in the 70"s.

Hey - that sounds like an idea - Why not raise that suggestion with KISD?

Perhaps make a vote between the following names:

* Klein Kohrville High School (After the neighborhood)

* Klein Paul Kohrmann High School (After the founder of Kohrville)

* Klein Hap Harrington High School (After the KISD principal)

Benton was 16, not 13, at the time she killed 15-year old Gabriel Granillo.

The thing that is weird about the stabbing case that nobody mentioned, is that yes she killed a gang member, but he was only THIRTEEN years old! I guess I don't know much about gangs but it seems like that kid was too young to cause any real trouble. If she had stabbed an older dude who had a record of gang related crimes that would be one thing, but to stab a young kid who most likely was not so much involved with the gang (yet) seems totally different to me.

Do you think that 13 year old boy was too far involved with MS-13 to ever get out, and he deserved to die for it, or do you think that maybe, somehow if he was still alive that he might go a different route as he grows up?

And, to add, Westbury got a chunk of a brand new campus when the old campus building was revealed to be unsafe.

"In any event, the concrete that was supposed to test out at 3,000 pounds per square inch had made it up to only a thin and stretchy 1,400 to 2,000 psi."

The Houston Press wrote an article about Westbury, referring to it as HISD's "Red-headed Stepchild" - http://www.houstonpress.com/2001-09-06/news/stepchild/

"Many would rightfully say that this was the perfect example of HISD at its best: getting the kids to safety, keeping them safe, working through the night on plans that would enable them to negotiate the last week of school and finals with nary a misstep.

But many also would label this an equally perfect example of HISD at its worst: neglecting a school, thereby creating a crisis that never had to happen. And all this the result of in-district politics that passed over Westbury while the needs of more prestigious schools were handled much more quickly.

Others, more moderate, disinclined to protest but a bit uncomfortable with the downward drift of the Westbury facility over the years, saw a gift in the near collapse."

I also understood this quote:

"Today, Westbury High is more than 80 percent minority. Critics, the devoted supporters of the school who don't think it is getting its due, say it doesn't represent its (white) surrounding neighborhood anymore. But District Superintendent Richard Lawrence says Westbury High represents its neighborhood, one that takes in Westbury -- yes -- but also Maplewood North and South, and Glenshire. In fact, it covers all of the very diverse area bounded by South Main, Gessner, Braeswood and South Post Oak. This is an area increasingly filled with children in apartment complexes, he says."

Now, Westbury's population is increasing again. It jumped from 1,779 in 01-02 to 2,445 in 05-06: http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/Westbury_HS.pdf

Yeah - I am aware about them - But I didn't realize that the area north of Bissonnet soured that quickly!

The graffiti was somewhere around the intersection of Atwell and Jessamine.

When I was picking up chairs for a party in May, I went to an area near Aztec Rental on 5702 Bissonnet. I accidentally overshot the store and cut through a neighborhood street (on the north side of Bissonnet) to get back to the store. I found an isolated road with crummy-looking apartments. This one building had spraypainted (in black) words - the words made me realize that, even in the daytime, hanging around that side of Bissonnet was probably not a wise idea.

So, was that graffiti made by real street punks/inner city thugs? Should I have contacted HPD about that graffiti?

Is Bear Creek Elementary School in Conroe ISD? If so when was there last Bond Program?

I think he means the Bear Creek ES in Katy ISD - In Western unincorporated Harris County: http://www.katyisd.org/campuses/BCE/index.htm

Why was the HSPVA building cancelled? Does anyone know what happened with this project and whether or not it might still go ahead?

HSPVA really needs a new facility, their current one just won't cut it for a great program like this. :-\

I have no idea - Should I e-mail HISD and ask?