Spring Branch High School At 9016 Westview Dr.

[Retama]

I had friends in Spring Branch who went to Spring Branch High. I remember going to the school but I can't remember where it was located. Can someone help me?

Also, did they tear it down or is it still up?

[cowboybud]

I had friends in Spring Branch who went to Spring Branch High. I remember going to the school but I can't remember where it was located. Can someone help me?

Also, did they tear it down or is it still up?

Westview just east of Campbell in Spring Valley. My grandmother used to live in the area and my two oldest sisters went there. They converted it to a magnet school, I think. Not sure if it's still there.

One semi-celebrity went there; pro wrestling great Gino Hernandez (real name, Charles Wolfe).

[VicMan]

Spring Branch School of Choice is the magnet school.

[plumber2]

Cornerstone School occupies part of the old high school campus too.

[northbeaumont]

Westview just east of Campbell in Spring Valley. My grandmother used to live in the area and my two oldest sisters went there. They converted it to a magnet school, I think. Not sure if it's still there.

One semi-celebrity went there; pro wrestling great Gino Hernandez (real name, Charles Wolfe).

Back when I was in high school in the 1970s, Spring Branch High School had a pair of twin brothers on its football team. I don't remember their last name. I do remember one of them went on to play for the New York Giants. Maybe someone out their knows who they were.

[Retama]

Back when I was in high school in the 1970s, Spring Branch High School had a pair of twin brothers on its football team. I don't remember their last name. I do remember one of them went on to play for the New York Giants. Maybe someone out their knows who they were.

Were they the Tabor brothers? Phil and Paul?

Spring Branch produced a bunch of good football players most of whom went to UT: Chris Gilbert, Donnie Wiggington, Mike Luck. Former OU coach Gary Gibbs played there.

[northbeaumont]

Were they the Tabor brothers? Phil and Paul?

Spring Branch produced a bunch of good football players most of whom went to UT: Chris Gilbert, Donnie Wiggington, Mike Luck. Former OU coach Gary Gibbs played there.

Yes, I remembered their last name after I posted the question. What's "OU?"

[Retama]

Yes, I remembered their last name after I posted the question. What's "OU?"

OU = University of Oklahoma

[northbeaumont]

OU = University of Oklahoma

Is Spring Branch HS in HISD or in its own district?

[cowboybud]

Is Spring Branch HS in HISD or in its own district?

No, there's a Spring Branch ISD.

http://www.springbranchisd.com/

The current high schools are Memorial, Northbrook, Spring Woods and Stratford. Spring Branch and Westchester were converted to magnet schools.

[northbeaumont]

No, there's a Spring Branch ISD.

http://www.springbranchisd.com/

The current high schools are Memorial, Northbrook, Spring Woods and Stratford. Spring Branch and Westchester were converted to magnet schools.

Wow! The suburbs of Houston are bigger than I thought. Spring Branch has that many schools? Someone on this forum said that Cypress had several high schools.

What is a "magnet" school?

[FilioScotia]

Wow! The suburbs of Houston are bigger than I thought. Spring Branch has that many schools? Someone on this forum said that Cypress had several high schools. What is a "magnet" school?

The Spring Branch ISD was created when it was outside Houston in the suburbs, but Houston has grown so much it's now almost entirely inside the Houston city limits. The district also takes in several smaller up-scale "enclave" cities that were created in the 50s to avoid being annexed by Houston. They became "enclaves" when Houston expanded outward and around them. All that happened before the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction Law was passed in the early 60s, giving Houston control over a five mile wide strip outside its city limit line.

Also, the Spring Branch district once had more high schools than it now has. Over several decades, when it was a suburban school district, young families moved in by the many thousands, and the district grew to accomodate them. At one time, there were five or six high schools. Then in the late 80s and early 90s, the district stopped growing because it had stopped attracting young couples of child-bearing age. All their children were graduating and, in some areas, almost no children were replacing them. The district was forced to close Spring Branch and Westchester High Schools and sell the properties.

I predict the same thing is going to happen in the Cypress-Fairbanks School District several decades from now. Cy-Fair is the fastest growing school district in the state, with 8 high schools, and two more scheduled to open next fall. It pleases me to be able to say my two children went to one of the two schools that don't have the word "Cypress" in their names. Personally, I think the school board out here needs to get a grip and lose its obsession with that word. Here's the list:

Cy-Fair 22602 Hempstead Hwy, Cypress

Cypress Creek 9815 Grant Rd., Houston

Cypress Falls 9811 Huffmeister Rd. Houston

Cypress Ridge 7900 N. Eldridge Parkway, Houston

Cypress Springs 7909 Fry Rd., Cypress

Cypress Woods 16825 Spring Cypress Rd., Cypress

Jersey Village 7600 Solomon St., Houston

Langham Creek 17610 FM 529, Houston

Cypress Lakes (opening fall 2008) 5750 Greenhouse Road, Katy

Cypress Ranch (opening fall 2008) 10700 Fry Road, Cypress

By the way, having a Houston address doesn't mean it's "in" Houston. Many areas outside the city limits have a Houston address. I have no idea why.

As for your final question, a "magnet school" is a specialty high school that, along with the usual 3-R's, has a curriculum designed to steer students toward a specific career. Houston ISD has magnet schools for professions in medicine, engineering, law enforcement, even the visual and performing arts. It's like a trade school at the high school level, except it prepares students to pursue a particular field when they get to college.

Magnet schools were created in the 1970s as a way to integrate the schools racially. The school board eliminated attendance zones to allow students to go to any school they choose that has room for them. The federal courts accepted the idea of career oriented magnet schools in every part of town, and open to every child in the district, as an alternative to forced busing, and it has worked, by and large.

Houston schools are successfully integrated as far as the federal courts are concerned. Yes there are many high schools that are more than 95 percent black, but students in those schools are free to attend any other school in the district they can get into. With magnet schools spread out everywhere attracting students of all races, something resembling "racial balance" is achieved.

Edited December 21, 2007 by FilioScotia

[Firebird65]

... the Spring Branch district once had more high schools than it now has.

From 1974 to 1985, Spring Branch had six high schools:

Spring Branch - opened ?

Memorial - opened 1962

Spring Woods - opened 1964

Westchester - opened 1967

Northbrook - opened 1974

Stratford - opened 1974

Spring Branch and Westchester both closed after the 1985. I can see why they would have wanted to close Spring Branch - after all, it was probably somewhere between 40 and 50 years old and proably pretty small compared to newer schools. But Westchester was 18 years old. A member of the final graduating class would have been no older than the school.

[FilioScotia]

Spring Branch and Westchester both closed after the 1985. I can see why they would have wanted to close Spring Branch - after all, it was probably somewhere between 40 and 50 years old and proably pretty small compared to newer schools. But Westchester was 18 years old. A member of the final graduating class would have been no older than the school.

The ages of the schools had nothing to do with it. It was the ages of the children in the district. The SBISD didn't have enough students of high school age, and there weren't enough children in the elementary and middle schools to justify keeping six high schools open. Two high schools had to go.

That's what happens when young child-bearing families stop moving into a school district. In the 50s and 60s, thousands of those young families were moving into the SBISD to get out of the Houston ISD, but at some point that influx leveled off and stopped.

By that time though, SB had expanded until there were six high schools. Gradually, in the 70s and 80s, enrollments at those schools declined to the point where it finally became painfully clear that two schools had to be closed and sold.

[capt. kirk]

THE BUILDING IS STILL THERE.........THE ADMIN OFFICES FOR SBISD...........NEXT TO IT IS REGGIE GROB ATHLETIC FIELD...........THERE WAS AN OLD STADIUM BEFORE GROB