VicMan

1. Well, if HISD improves the funding of the schools and provides a more stable leadership to the schools, the schools may get a little better (It would be unlikely to turn them into academic bastions!) - But that may be enough for the district to be able to convince immigrant families and people pushed out of gentrifying urban areas to move to the North Forest area. If many immigrants from El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, etc. move into the NFISD area, the makeup would gradually change.

Also, I read about Wilmer-Hutchins ISD (a small, mostly African-American ISD dismantled in 2005 and given to Dallas ISD) and I remember someone complaining about how bilingual students did not receive enough attention in the district, or something like that. And then the fact that DISD was mostly Hispanic and that DISD would be able to provide better services to Spanish-speaking families was mentioned. I forget the location of the source, and I will see if I can find it.

2. In a way, demographics would prove to be a problem for the same schools. But, remember that kids have the option of transferring to other schools. If a kid qualifies for a magnet program, she gets free bus transportation. Therefore there may be some (or many) NFISD kids in classrooms of magnet schools.

4. I want all of Houston to be in one school district in order to give a large body of students in order to diversify types of schools and course offerings given to city children, and also to make the greatest number of schools in more well-to-do areas and magnet schools accessible to kids living in not-so-great neighborhoods (As in the magnet schools and magnet programs in other schools select applications out of a body submitted to the schools).

Also, while I want various sections of the city to tailor their schools to their own needs (And also retain local control to varying degrees, depending on the sections of the city and of the insular cities), I also feel that residents and officials in various parts of Houston ought to cooperate with citywide services and special programs (i.e. seeing officials from, say, Kingwood, River Oaks, Alief, Clear Lake, Third Ward, Oak Forest, North Shore, Inwood Forest, etc. could cooperate on a program to bring books to low income households with children enrolled in district schools). I.E. I want to unify the city in terms of its education programs instead of having the city divided into different areas only with concern for themselves.

Now, I understand this is unlikely due to political climates and, in some cases, some suburban populations that do not wish to join larger school districts. So, the proposal above would be "nice."

But, I say a proposal to merge NFISD into HISD is "absolutely necessary."

I'm not sure how you think that these issues will be addressed by an HISD/NFISD merger.

1. The locations of the individual schools within NFISD inherently hurt chances of the district performing, but if HISD takes over, the locations of schools and thus the cultures inherent to them will not change because the demographics will remain the same. Also, HISD would have to contend with the same ratio of students to tax base as NFISD does, and the result would be a financial burden on HISD. Surely, you can see how they might be reluctant to screw their existing constituents.

2. "Absorbing" NFISD isn't the same as absorbing a highly-mobile refugee population like they had to do in late 2005. They don't just get distributed throughout the entirety of the rest of the district. The same old problems apply to the same old schools.

4. Why?

Money.HISD has a larger balance sheet than any of the ones you listed. HISD is better equipped to handle the students from NFISD and it has happened before. Back in the early 1990's, HISD absorbed students from NFISD when NFISD stood on the brink of total financial collapse.

This is news to me! Do you have exact dates? I would love to find a Chronicle article about this!

Ugh. Then that would mean Pasadena and Clear Creek schools would have to migrate to sloppy ole HISD.

Bad idea jeans.

Erm, not all Pasadena ISD and Clear Creek ISD schools - Just those within the Houston city limits.

I would establish an administrative region combining the Houston portions of PISD and CCISD and call it the "Clear Lake Region" - consisting of Dobie HS (currently PISD), Clear Creek HS (currently CCISD), and a new high school that would be built to handle Houston residents living in the attendance boundaries of South Houston HS and Pasadena Memorial HS.

4441 Rusk is zoned to, in Houston ISD:

* Lantrip ES

* Jackson MS

* Austin HS

https://www.edline.net/pages/Galveston_ISD/...d_on_the_Street

Right now GISD's configuration on Galveston Island for elementary and middle school includes:

* 5 PK-5 schools

* 2 PK-6 schools (San Jacinto, a formerly operated K-6, closed recently)

* 2 6-8 schools

* 1 7-8 school

Three middle schools for a small, small island with an increasingly wealthy population? GISD apparently does not believe that makes a lot of sense.

Well, GISD decided to close Alamo ES after 2008 and convert it to a multipurpose center.

As for the remaining elementary schools, all would include Kindergarten through 4th grade.

Weis Middle School would become the zoned 5-6 campus.

Central Middle School would become the zoned 7-8 campus.

Austin Middle School (the 7-8) would become a magnet 5-8 campus.

As a note:

* Residents on the Bolivar Peninsula in GISD are zoned to Crenshaw Elementary and Middle School, a PK-8 school

* ALL GISD residents are zoned to Ball High School

These condos would be zoned to (Galveston ISD) the following schools (just like everyone else on the far West end):

* Oppe Elementary School

* Weis Middle School

* Ball High School

Read The Galveston Daily News this morning, It seems to be a lost cause. There won't be enough students to left by 2025 to worry about desegregation. They could just put every one on a single campus by then.

This is the article that you are referring to, right? http://blogs.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=aacab3c3ce24f0d1

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/4804120.html

The LULAC is trying to stop Galveston's school closures by using a desegregation order as evidence that the GISD did not contact the justice department for permission to close the schools.

I believe that the schools should be let go; gentrification is inevitable and should be allowed to proceed.

I drove to the area near the fire to see the events. I noticed a lot of police and fire automobiles and a lot of TMC staff in a tizzy.

She talks like she is a sailor "very thuggish" with slang and curse words, only has a HS degree, currently unemployed and living with mom/dad (at age 26). Just no motivation, very sad, especially for another fellow persian girl.

Pump, why did her parents send her to Lee? Do they regret that decision now?

I moved to Houston about 10 years ago and am friends now with quite a few guys who are around my age and who graduated from Lee back in the early 90's. They're all pretty opinionated and bothered that it's gone downhill but they tend to blame the kids going to school there now, and thus they indirectly blame the opening of Westside - the same lower income kids from the Gulfton/Southwest Side that are at Lee now were also there 15 years ago, except that before Westside was constructed, Lee's attendance zone extended past the Beltway and in some places went all the way to Highway 6 . It included all of Briar Forest and a lot of far west Westheimer. Many kids who lived just on the other side of the bayou from kids at Stratford, the guys I'm friends with now, instead went all the way to Lee. Now those kids go to Westside and there's nothing left at Lee but the poor immigrant kids.

Let's look at Lee's ethnic breakdown: http://www.schooldigger.com/go/TX/schools/...518/school.aspx

The school was majority Hispanic before Westside opened.

Unfortunately, Middle College is no longer operating (for some reason it made it on this list - I don't know why)

It seems like this list mostly corresponds to the reputations of the local schools.

EDIT: Pineda, are you surprised to see Westfield ahead of Klein Oak? The list seems somewhat outdated as the reputations shifted.

I wish his family all the best. Death isn't ever easy.

That said, I LOVE the fact that most of the younger posters had NO CLUE as to who this man was until he died. That gives me great hope for the future!

I wonder what will happen to Liberty University (if anything)?

I think Liberty University will become less conservative; this trend began and occurred before Falwell's death.

Is there any truth to the rumor that he lobbied the American Medical Association to have the term renamed

We currently live in KISD and attend Klein Collins. I would have to suggest Klein Springs High School. Forget using Gleannloch, or Kohrville. I used to work for business located on Kohrville, and it was a complete pain in the rear to spell it constantly for callers, and those mailing something to us. Keep it simple, yet have some meaning, remember the kids that will attend and always remember the name and memories of their high school.

I do not feel that "Klein Springs" has much of a meaning to the school name - Where are the springs? Suburban schools need to pick unique names to make their schools stand out as individuals.

A lot of places in the U.S. have difficult-to-spell names.

I have a friend from school, and her sister goes to Queen of Peace.

The family feels that Jackson Middle School is not a good school (My school has some kids who graduated from Jackson, by the way), so the younger daughter attends Catholic school. The older daughter, who I call by her family name, is going to go to HBU as a commuter after graduating (I am about to graduate too!).

Sharpfan works on Wikipedia articles about Sharpstown and his schools (He currently attends River Oaks's Lamar High School) - He is known as J90nepnjmm on Wikipedia (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:J90nepnjmm )

In other words, we have a valuable contributor to Wikipedia, and we can all collaborate on Wikipedia articles about Houston

There's also a blog entry by an employee of Fox Atlanta: http://community.myfoxatlanta.com/blogs/Da...id_they_know_it

I agree that Brazoria County's liquor laws should be changed. The whole anti-drinking laws did not work in the 1920s, and they clearly do not work today.

Brazoria County is no longer a solidly rural and industrial county - Now Houston suburban influence is seeping in through Pearland and into Manvel and Alvin.

Was it that big of a deal? I didn't even know who this guy was until today (or I don't remember him).

Well, he held a lot of political power in the 1980s - he was partly responsible for the resurgence of Conservatism in the United States in the 1980s.

He is also known for controversial statements made in the 1990s and 2000s, such as the Teletubbies statement.

The news telling was strange...

I was in my English classroom at lunchtime, relaxing as I surfed the internet. Upon seeing CNN the first time, the cover article stated that Falwell was rushed to the hospital. So, a few moments later a kid using another computer in the middle of the room said "Oh, Jerry Falwell is dead!" At first I was like, "Dude, Falwell isn't dead - he is just in the hospital" - Then I re-checked CNN.com to find the cover now stating...

I exclaimed, "He IS dead."

(I didn't look at his computer as my computer was against the wall)

Then I ran out the door and started yelling at the kids in the courtyard, spreading the odd news.

I didn't realize that Falwell had such a large grip on 1980s politics; I remember him for saying that Tinky-Winky was homosexual.

Also, you may wish to check proposed residences for their zoned schools, although magnet schools and private schools are plentiful in the city of Houston.

Use: http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/abcx_tool/search.asp - This will help you determine the zoned schools for the residences.

To check the quality of the schools, use http://www.greatschools.net to see how well the schools stack up. If you like the first impressions, you should schedule campus tours to get a feel of the assigned campuses.

Hey, I wonder if KatieDidIt would be interested in this - This is zoned to Stratford HS... In case she can't find a home right away, this may work as a temp. fix.

From what I can tell from the details, this is zoned to Houston ISD's Booker T. Washington HS.

(Pinemont at N. Shepherd to Pinemont at Ella is more than 1 mile, therefore this is before Ella. Now, if it is to the right heading west, it would be on the north side and therefore in the Washington zone). The zone map for Booker T is here: http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/schoolbounda...ashingtonHS.pdf

The property, therefore, is also zoned to:

* Williams MS (Boundary map here http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/schoolbounda.../WilliamsMS.pdf )

* Highland Heights ES (Boundary map here http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/schoolbounda...ndHeightsES.pdf )

By the way, 916 Lester is in Houston ISD:

* Memorial ES

* Hogg MS

* Lamar HS

12980A Trail Hollow is zoned to, in Spring Branch ISD:

* Rummel Creek ES

* Memorial MS

* Stratford HS