The Heights To Potentially Lose 3-Schools In Re-Organization

[heights_yankee]

As the number of families of school age children in the Heights explodes, we may lose 1 middle school and 2 elementary schools. Interesting. I live 5 blocks from Field but am zoned to Browning, twice as far away. Of course, by all accounts I've heard, the new Superintendent is a schmuck so maybe he can't be counted on to make good decisions...

Hogg Middle School and Field and Love Elementary Schools are on a list of "small schools" HISD is considering closing or re-organizing. Here is the article from the Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/7348147.html

Here is a link to the complete list of 66 schools:

http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2010/12/houston-isd-releases-list-of-66-small-schools-being/1292514679.column

[Ross]

Love doesn't really have room for many more students, the building isn't that big. I would expect that schools that have physical size limitations are less likely to close than the schools that are running at half of capacity.

[Dan the Man]

I could be wrong, but my first thought is that HISD would choose to close the smaller schools and transfer the students to a larger facility if it is nearby. Even though the smaller schools may be at capacity, it probably makes more sense to consolidate the students and staff on the larger campus. HISD would probably wants to keep the larger campuses in their portfolio, especially if school enrollment is projected to increase in the area. A school can always expand on a larger campus, but this may be impossible on a smaller campus.

However, a huge discrepancy between the annual maintenance costs or physical conditions of the two facilities may make it favorable to close the large campus and keep the small one.

[Angostura]

As the number of families of school age children in the Heights explodes, we may lose 1 middle school and 2 elementary schools. Interesting. I live 5 blocks from Field but am zoned to Browning, twice as far away. Of course, by all accounts I've heard, the new Superintendent is a schmuck so maybe he can't be counted on to make good decisions...

Hogg Middle School and Field and Love Elementary Schools are on a list of "small schools" HISD is considering closing or re-organizing. Here is the article from the Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com...nt/7348147.html

Here is a link to the complete list of 66 schools:

http://www.texaswatc...92514679.column

I suspect it's more the demography of school age children that's changed over the last 10 years than the quantity, and the parents of the Heights' newer residents tend to prefer Harvard and Travis to Field and Love, which is why the enrollment at those schools is down.

Put another way, based on HISD's ethnicity data, white enrollment at Heights elementary schools is as follows:

- Travis: 41% of 724 (41% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch)

- Harvard: 28% of 663 (52% FRL)

- Helms: 9% of 540 (75% FRL)

- Love: 7% of 419 (92% FRL)

- Field: 2% of 451 (96% FRL)

Though both Love and Field are classified as "Exemplary" there are clear signs of de facto ethnic segregation, with very few white parents sending their kids to these schools.

[ricco67]

In closing those schools, perhaps HISD would take that opportunity to knock expand, modernize, or build a new one for the future. Surely those schools would be needed in the future.

Edit: Nah, that would make too much sense.

[Zippy]

We have two kids and we're zoned to Field.. there's no way in **** we'd send our kids there..

It's really a shame that we have to pay such exorbitant property taxes for such pitiful schools.

[Highway6]

I suspect it's more the demography of school age children that's changed over the last 10 years than the quantity, and the parents of the Heights' newer residents tend to prefer Harvard and Travis to Field and Love, which is why the enrollment at those schools is down.

Put another way, based on HISD's ethnicity data, white enrollment at Heights elementary schools is as follows:

- Travis: 41% of 724 (41% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch)

- Harvard: 28% of 663 (52% FRL)

- Helms: 9% of 540 (75% FRL)

- Love: 7% of 419 (92% FRL)

- Field: 2% of 451 (96% FRL)

Though both Love and Field are classified as "Exemplary" there are clear signs of de facto ethnic segregation, with very few white parents sending their kids to these schools.

"Exemplary" !!!

Yes, What a great one-word descriptor for a school that falls right about at the 50% level of all Houston elementary schools. The state's ranking system is a joke and is as useless as Homeland Security's color coded alert system.

According to Children at Risk's 2010 rankings, those elementary schools in question rank ( out of 557 Houston area elementary schools) as follows:

Travis - 71st

Harvard - 92nd

Helms - 322nd

Love - 292nd

Field - 217th

Travis and esp. Harvard , as your %s show, do not have a majority of white students, but since you want to make it about race - The question is not - "Why are white parents pulling their kids out of minority schools"... It's "Why aren't minority parents smart enough/motivated enough/caring enough about their kids education to also transfer their kids out of inferior schools" ?

[s3mh]

"Exemplary" !!!

Yes, What a great one-word descriptor for a school that falls right about at the 50% level of all Houston elementary schools. The state's ranking system is a joke and is as useless as Homeland Security's color coded alert system.

According to Children at Risk's 2010 rankings, those elementary schools in question rank ( out of 557 Houston area elementary schools) as follows:

Travis - 71st

Harvard - 92nd

Helms - 322nd

Love - 292nd

Field - 217th

Since You want to make it about race . The question is not - "Why are white parents pulling their kids out of minority schools"... It's "Why aren't minority parents smart enough/motivated enough/caring enough about their kids education to also transfer their kids out of inferior schools" ?

Not too long ago, Harvard and Travis weren't so far off where Helms, Love and Field are now. Harvard and Travis got turned around by a lot of neighborhood involvement in the schools. That same kind of involvement has not found its way to Helms, Love and Field because parents are either going with magnet/vangaurd or private school for their kids rather than take the time and trouble to get involved with the schools.

The real question is what do you do with the kids at Helms, Love or Field if any are closed down. Harvard and Travis have little room to grow. Love actually has a decent sized lot and could expand significantly with a major addition. But, that doesn't look to be in the cards as the school has been listed on the chopping block. Hopefully, they will be spared. It is a crappy thing to pull a kid from elementary school and throw them in with a bunch of strangers. Not sure how that is in the best interest of educating our kids.

[Highway6]

Not too long ago, Harvard and Travis weren't so far off where Helms, Love and Field are now. Harvard and Travis got turned around by a lot of neighborhood involvement in the schools. That same kind of involvement has not found its way to Helms, Love and Field because parents are either going with magnet/vangaurd or private school for their kids rather than take the time and trouble to get involved with the schools.

Thanks for proving my point.

If Harvard and Travis can turn around, why can't Helms, Field, Love ? Because not all parents give a damn.

I don't know what came first, the mass transfer to Harvard/Travis, or the neighborhood involvement turning the schools around, but there's obviously a cycle there, feeding off each other, and the more the schools improve, the more it will draw parents who care about their kid's education.

Unfortunately, those other 3 schools are left with the parents who don't give enough a damn to try to change their school, or to switch their kids to a school that is performing better.

As for what to do about the kids. I don't know. I wish no schools were closing.

If I were a parent with a student in Harvard or Travis, why would I want those other 3 schools to close down so that we now have to deal with a mass influx of riff-raff and kids of parent's who don't give enough of a damn to come in and undo the improvement Harvard and Travis have gained.

As for vilifying parents who send their kids to magnet, vanguard, or private schools. Every parent should do so. If you aren't blessed enough to live in a place where your zoned school is top notch, then it is your duty to go with one of those 3 options or transfer to whichever better school you can get away with.

Yes, neighborhood and parental involvement in a school is of utmost importance to make that school better, but let's be realistic. Not every school can be top notch. And not all parents give a damn. These 5 schools are all within 2 miles of each other. They are all, relatively speaking, in the same neighborhood. The neighborhood has spoken. They have slowly decided which of those 5 schools they want to invest in. It's not worth the risk to your child's education to attempt to invest in a school at the bottom of the totem pole that has shown there aren't enough parent's to help turn it around.

Any parent that chooses to keep their student in one of those 3 inferior schools, when numerous other options are available, isn't much of a parent.

[Melwood]

I don't know much about Fields and Love, but I can say that Helms does have a lot of students with parents who care very much about the school. Several years ago Helms started a dual language elementary program that a number of parents signed up their kids for and transferred in. However, these changes probably take time to become noticeable unless you know someone there.

We liked Travis and Harvard, but decided to transfer our kids to Wilson Montessori in Montrose. But tranferring is not as easy as it was even 3 years ago, the "good" schools are filling up. Fields and Love (and Browning, where our kids - we live in Norhill - are zoned to) are going to become the only choices for a lot of parents unless they want to move or enroll in private school. I can only hope that HISD is looking at the 2010 census data and seeing an influx of elementary aged children zoned to these schools before hastily closing them down.

Having said all that, it must be tough to run a large number of "small" schools, the overhead on keeping each one open can be spread out over a relatively small body of students, even when filled, compared to large, centralized suburban schools.

[RedScare]

While there has been no decision made on the 3 Heights schools, and Census data will be of no help (it will be old data by the time it is released. HISD needs current data.), two statements made here lead me to believe that at least one school may close, maybe more. The first statement is that the school age population is exploding. While the interest in gentrifying the Heights may be exploding, the school age population is definitely not. Gentrifying whites are generally singles and childless couples. Those whites with children generally have one or two. The hispanic families that are being displaced have much bigger school aged families. The second statement that is troubling to HISD is that the gentrifying whites often send their children to private school. Every family that puts their kids in private school may as well be childless in the eyes of HISD planners, as no HISD school space is needed for them.

With family size shrinking, and many wealthier new families eschewing HISD schools, it only makes sense that the schools in these gentrifying areas would shrink in enrollment. It also makes sense to look at combining smaller schools, so that valuable resources are better utilized. When it comes to schools, the proof is in the pudding. All the talk in the world means nothing if the school's population is declining.

[Materene]

We have two kids and we're zoned to Field.. there's no way in **** we'd send our kids there..

It's really a shame that we have to pay such exorbitant property taxes for such pitiful schools.

It's sad to hear this about my old school. I was 6 when I first started at Eugene Fields, it was once a nice beautiful school. We had large playgrounds on each corner, now they have widened the streets to where there is hardly any room. There was a time when there were Japanese Persimmon Trees lining the entire length of the sidewalks, nice huge Magnolia Trees were growing at both entrances and all along the sides of the building. To this day I still can remember sitting there in the summer and smelling those flowers when they were in bloom. The halls were shiny and clean all the time and the Teachers all had been there for years and years. There was Mrs Rayburn, Mrs Miller.. I remember Mrs Miller more vividly because she bought a brand new 58 Buick and it was a Baby Blue color, nothing like it in the entire neighborhood, everyone was still driving old cars. There were two old Teachers that car pooled each day and one drove an old black 30's something Dodge, it had a standard shift as most did in the era, you could hear her grinding gears before you saw the car!. We had every holiday affair there was, Halloween, Valentines, May Fair Christmas, there was always something going on for the students and the Teachers and the community. Wednesdays was Snow Cone day, 15 cents would buy you that snow cone and all the proceeds went into the school for our projects.

We had weekly paper drives where the class that had the most pounds won the prize, I can't remember but I think if you won the drive you got out of school slightly earlier than the rest of the school. There was so much paper stacked on the school sidewalks you had to walk in the street. Needless to say I'm very sad to hear that it is in bad condition. But if I said it was a surprise I'd be lying. I guess it's only fitting to see it go about the same time span as my own life, that's the way it all ends, everyone before us has gone through the same changes in their lives and watched their childhood slowly fading. Can't really say if I'm saddened or just too old to care.

[heights_yankee]

There are currently 2 groups of parents working with the PTOs and Principals at both Love and Field. Both of these groups are mostly parents whose children will enter Kinder in the next two years, i.e. their children are 3-4 years old this year. These groups are highly motivated and, for better or worse, want the schools to be up to par with what most parents consider Harvard and Travis to be now. It's just a shame that HISD isn't meeting with the communities.

When I bought my house in Norhill 6 years ago, there was one family on the street who moved to another part of the Heights about 3 months after we moved in. We now have 2 children and there are 4 other households with kids on our block, age ranges from 10 mos old to 12 years old. 4 of these kids were born while their parents lived in the Heights, while others moved in from elsewhere. Yes, childless couples gentrify, but they often do so with an eye to starting a family. They buy a house, fix it up and expand in to it. Also, these days more and more families are moving within the Heights (and also to Garden Oaks/Oak Forest/Timbergrove/etc) when they outgrow their 1st Heights home, rather than moving to Katy or Sugarland. In fact, I know several families who tired of never seeing their kids due to commute times and have moved back in the loop from the suburbs. Having been immersed in kiddo world for the last 4.5 years, I can say one of two things has happened: there are a lot more young families (and these would be people who moved her 5-10 years ago, when they were young and childless and now have kids in the newborn to 5 year old range) and/or more families are engaged and participating in the neighborhood. Either way, this will mean a need for more public schools seats and, again, 2 of these schools are just getting ramped up with parent involvement.

The mom who is heading the community involvement at Field actually emailed Heights Kids group a couple of days ago and said that Field is only 17 students away from the cut off. What will probably happen is there is a program, can't remember what right now, that will get cut and the school will lose the funding from that but it will probably remain open. Like Norhill, I live close to Field but am zoned to Browning. It doesn't make a lot of sense logistically. HISD might be better off to look at who is zoned where. Browning is not a school where families I know would send their kids, so even though much of Norhill is zoned there, families here use the lottery system to send their kids to other schools- usually choosing the most desirable like Harvard, Travis, Garden Oaks and Wilson. And Helms, which many parents really love. I'm surprised anyone feels that Helms is an underperforming school at all! On the other hand, at least a few of these families would send their kids to Field. Many families who live in the Heights now want public school and want more options, which is why the parents are getting involved before their kids are even school age. This whole thing is short sighted in HISDs part and once those schools are gone, there will be no getting them reopened even if there is a need for it. HISD needs to look a lot more carefully at the situation in the area before it cuts off its nose and spites its face.

[RedScare]

While I do not doubt that having young children exposes you to more people with young children, the demographics of both HISD and Houston do not validate your observations. Enrollment in HISD has declined throughout the 2000s, losing approximately 4% of its students over this decade. This trend has been downward since at least the 70s, when there was at one time 240,000 students. Keep in mind that the City was only 1.5 million in population then, compared to 2.3 million now. The shortsighted approach would be to ignore the declines and continue to operate schools that are not supported by the neighborhood population.

It is important to emphasize that the 66 schools are not slated to close. They are under review, as they should be. If your perceptions are borne out by the numbers, the Heights area schools will stay open. If the numbers that I've seen remain the same, one or more may not make it. A quick glance at the City's Super neighborhood numbers show Heights school age demographics lagging 30% to 50% behind other neighborhoods with lower white populations. The percentage of pre-school age children are even lower, suggesting LESS need for these schools in the future, not more. Current trends in planning and development in the Heights that discourage more density in housing and make it harder to expand smaller homes will also discourage larger families. See this link for data. 125,000 of HISD's 203,000 students are hispanic (62%). Only about 16,000 are White (7.8%). HISD must serve the needs of its customer base, and frankly, whites have largely abandoned HISD. I am encouraged that some whites want HISD to succeed (as I do), but as a taxpayer, if enrollment no longer supports the number of schools currently serving them, the smaller ones should be shuttered and the attendance lines re-drawn, so as to more efficiently serve the students still attending the schools.

I encouraged the review, and while I expect the provincial arguments that always accompany school closings, I hope the HISD trustees successfully make the hard choices that need to be made.

[heights_yankee]

Enrollment doesn't mean there are fewer children. It means the schools are bad and people are choosing alternatives. I know 4 families in the Heights who homeschool and 1 more who is considering taking her kids out of private school to do the same. Many families go the private school or parochial school route and these are not always "rich" families. Some scrimp, save, get scholarships and use other means because education is important to them and they feel the public school system is failing. If HISD wants higher enrollment, they have to offer schools worth attending. Cramming more bodies in to already inadequate classrooms won't do that.

Again, one suggestion would be to re-evaluate how kids are zoned. I know 4 kids who would go to Field (their parents have said as much) if they were zoned there BUT if parents have to play the lottery game, they're going to choose Harvard, Travis etc instead.

I can see where there needs to be school closings. BUT I think that right now, some of the listed schools are right at the tipping point to the good side for once. Many parents in the Heights want their kids to go to public schools and really want them to go to the school they are zoned to- saving themselves the paperwork and commute to a school father away. I hope HISD looks at the community and not just the numbers. We have an opportunity to educate more kids and educate them better because, as you proved, with every upper income family in the Heights comes more lower income. As a tax payer, I want my money to go to the best possible use and I would rather pay for kids to be educated and start off on the right foot now than pay for them later...

[RedScare]

Enrollment doesn't mean there are fewer children.

No, but the demographics do. Heights area demographics suggest fewer school aged children going forward. And, as you stated, many of the remaining children are enrolled in private school or home schooled. Until these demographic trends reverse, it makes much more fiscal sense to concentrate limited resources on making fewer schools better, as opposed to making many schools mediocre.

If you have suggestions on how to keep all of the schools open while simultaneously making them better, while keeping within HISD's limited budget, by all means let the school board know. They do not relish the thought of telling you, your neighbors, or parents in other neighborhoods that their schools will be shuttered. But, these are tough economic times. Houston is surviving better than most, but that does not mean it is thriving. There are economic realities that must be faced. If district enrollment shrinks by 20%, it only makes sense that some schools should close.

I am not suggesting which schools should close, only that some likely should. I'll wait for the results of the review to see which ones. I should also point out that we are saying much the same things. As an example, if Browning is closed, attendance lines would be redrawn, and the monetary savings could be spent making Love and Field better schools. This would seem to grant your wishes and mine too.

[Dan the Man]

Most of the houses around me are zoned to Field. The neighborhood is gentrifying, but I doubt that this gentrification process will increase enrollment and demand for improvement at the school. It appears that many of my new neighbors are unmarried young people, older couples with grown children, or gay people without children. At the same time, one of the groups leaving the neighborhood is large Hispanic families who often have several children attending elementary school.

In spite of these issues, I know that there are several parents in the neighborhood actively involved with trying to improve the conditions at Field. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.

[VicMan]

Since the City of Houston =/ HISD, I wonder what the overall population of the HISD territory was back then and is now...

While I do not doubt that having young children exposes you to more people with young children, the demographics of both HISD and Houston do not validate your observations. Enrollment in HISD has declined throughout the 2000s, losing approximately 4% of its students over this decade. This trend has been downward since at least the 70s, when there was at one time 240,000 students. Keep in mind that the City was only 1.5 million in population then, compared to 2.3 million now. The shortsighted approach would be to ignore the declines and continue to operate schools that are not supported by the neighborhood population.

[heights_yankee]

No, but the demographics do. Heights area demographics suggest fewer school aged children going forward. And, as you stated, many of the remaining children are enrolled in private school or home schooled. Until these demographic trends reverse, it makes much more fiscal sense to concentrate limited resources on making fewer schools better, as opposed to making many schools mediocre.

If you have suggestions on how to keep all of the schools open while simultaneously making them better, while keeping within HISD's limited budget, by all means let the school board know. They do not relish the thought of telling you, your neighbors, or parents in other neighborhoods that their schools will be shuttered. But, these are tough economic times. Houston is surviving better than most, but that does not mean it is thriving. There are economic realities that must be faced. If district enrollment shrinks by 20%, it only makes sense that some schools should close.

I am not suggesting which schools should close, only that some likely should. I'll wait for the results of the review to see which ones. I should also point out that we are saying much the same things. As an example, if Browning is closed, attendance lines would be redrawn, and the monetary savings could be spent making Love and Field better schools. This would seem to grant your wishes and mine too.

I am also not saying that every school in HISD is viable, but Hamilton is full to capacity so if they close Hogg, where are all the kids from Travis/Harvard/Helms going to go? It's not like Lanier has a lot of room ,either. As far as the elementary schools, yes, some will close but I think showing the support of the community now for the ones we would like to keep NOW is better than waiting. The wheels of HISD bureaucracy work slow right up until you don't want them to. It never hurts to try and impact the decision making process early, which is why parents who care should get involved now.

[s3mh]

There are more families with small children in the Heights. Travis, Harvard and Browning have seen attendance rise over the past five years. The decline in attendance at Love and Field do not completely offset the gains at the other three. Factoring in the number of home school/private/parochial/magnet/vanguard kids that do not go to the area's elementary schools, it is clear that there are more families with children in the Heights. Demographically, the Heights has been bucking the district trend of becoming less white and more Latino. The opposite is happening in the Heights elementary schools. And if we are trading annectdotes, my street in the Heights had two little pre-school age kids move in and two households are expecting babies in the summer.

If you close one or more of the targeted schools (Field, Love, Browning) and shovel all those kids into the remaining schools, you do not save as much money as you simply warehouse the kids that really need the attention of smaller class size. The money saved will not be automatically transferred to the remaining schools that have to take in the additional students. The money saved will simply be saved to avoid raising property taxes.

[RedScare]

The 2010 Census map shows virtually the entirety of the Heights losing population.

http://blogs.chron.com/newswatch/2011/02/correction_2010_census_map_for.html

The most likely cause of the population decline is that more upper middle class singles and couples moved into the Heights area, displacing lower income minority families. Interestingly, the entire North Side also lost population. This, combined with the state budget cuts that may cost HISD $200 to $350 million suggests that not only has the school age population not increased, as was suggested, but that some schools will, and probably should close, so that others may be kept open at the high level demanded by Heights residents. I do not envy HISD's problem, and I hope Heights residents are realistic about the issue, though I have experienced the unreasonable demands that some can make.

[TheNiche]

The 2010 Census map shows virtually the entirety of the Heights losing population.

http://blogs.chron.com/newswatch/2011/02/correction_2010_census_map_for.html

The most likely cause of the population decline is that more upper middle class singles and couples moved into the Heights area, displacing lower income minority families. Interestingly, the entire North Side also lost population. This, combined with the state budget cuts that may cost HISD $200 to $350 million suggests that not only has the school age population not increased, as was suggested, but that some schools will, and probably should close, so that others may be kept open at the high level demanded by Heights residents. I do not envy HISD's problem, and I hope Heights residents are realistic about the issue, though I have experienced the unreasonable demands that some can make.

I don't disagree with your analysis, but your evidence is weak. As usual, I blame the Houston Chronicle for their sucky reporting.

[Heights Homeowner]

Not too long ago, Harvard and Travis weren't so far off where Helms, Love and Field are now. Harvard and Travis got turned around by a lot of neighborhood involvement in the schools. That same kind of involvement has not found its way to Helms, Love and Field because parents are either going with magnet/vangaurd or private school for their kids rather than take the time and trouble to get involved with the schools.

The real question is what do you do with the kids at Helms, Love or Field if any are closed down. Harvard and Travis have little room to grow. Love actually has a decent sized lot and could expand significantly with a major addition. But, that doesn't look to be in the cards as the school has been listed on the chopping block. Hopefully, they will be spared. It is a crappy thing to pull a kid from elementary school and throw them in with a bunch of strangers. Not sure how that is in the best interest of educating our kids.

My child was at Travis in the early days. Travis got turned around because of the Vanguard program and Harvard because of their magnet program. A fairly large number of the Travis students did not reside in the Heights so it wasn't exactly neighborhood involvement aside from their role in getting those programs, which was minimal. HISD was looking for schools to implement Vanguard/Magnet programs. It was not a hard fight to get it at Travis. So, it was the program that drew the students to the school and it evolved to what it is today over 25 years. I do agree that the other three do not get the neighborhood kids because of their lack of a program to attract the parents so they find other options. The new/young families in the neighborhood would put their kids in those schools if they would lobby HISD for stronger programs. There is never going to be enough advanced programs to satisfy all of the parents so many will still go to private but the boot-strap effect would make all the difference in the world.

Vanguard was created as an alternative to busing. When we were involved at Travis, it was a quota system which changed while my child was a Lanier in the Vanguard program. Travis initially did not attract enough minority students like other Vanguard programs so they back-filled with non-minority students who qualified "academicallly." However, in each grade, the two non-Vanguard classes in each grade were literally 98% Hispanic kids. I know they want cuts to these programs but that is probably the only thing that will save those schools in the long term. The educational programs in those three schools has to change first and all the neighborhood involvement in the world won't change things enough to draw students unless HISD will install programs to bring the kids in.

[s3mh]

http://blogs.chron.com/schoolzone/2011/03/live_updates_from_hisd_magnet.html#MAGNET

No word on school closings, but it looks like magnets and vanguard survive in the Heights.

[lcman]

Any idea on how the neighborhood would be rezoned if Love were actually to close?

[heights_yankee]

Any idea on how the neighborhood would be rezoned if Love were actually to close?

Sinclair, Durham and Harvard would pick up the slack if Love closes.

[Ross]

Sinclair, Durham and Harvard would pick up the slack if Love closes.

For Durham to pick up some slack, a chunk of Garden Oaks would have to be rezoned there. I really don't see how closing Love is going to help. It might be better to close Stevenson, and add room at Love for those students.

[JJxvi]

The 2010 Census map shows virtually the entirety of the Heights losing population.

http://blogs.chron.com/newswatch/2011/02/correction_2010_census_map_for.html

The most likely cause of the population decline is that more upper middle class singles and couples moved into the Heights area, displacing lower income minority families. Interestingly, the entire North Side also lost population. This, combined with the state budget cuts that may cost HISD $200 to $350 million suggests that not only has the school age population not increased, as was suggested, but that some schools will, and probably should close, so that others may be kept open at the high level demanded by Heights residents. I do not envy HISD's problem, and I hope Heights residents are realistic about the issue, though I have experienced the unreasonable demands that some can make.

Downtown lost population between 2000 and 2010?

[curley1733]

For Durham to pick up some slack, a chunk of Garden Oaks would have to be rezoned there. I really don't see how closing Love is going to help. It might be better to close Stevenson, and add room at Love for those students.

I have mainly heard that if Stevenson closes, the children will go to Memorial Elementary.

[RedScare]

Downtown lost population between 2000 and 2010?

The Harris County Jail on Franklin closed around the year 2000. Inmates are counted in the Census. If the jail closed after April 1, 2000, the inmates would have been included in the 2000 Census for downtown, but not 2010. I'd have to see the date it closed and the census tract boundary to confirm that this is the cause, but I suspect that it may be.