Jean Hines Caldwell Elementary School At 5515 W. Orem Dr.

[VicMan]

Jean Hines Caldwell and Moreno Elementary Schools will open next school year.

According to the Chronicle, Caldwell has terrazzo floors and naturally-lit hallways (with ceiling-high windows). Caldwell also has science rooms with computers and art rooms with kilns.

Two early childhood centers, Farias and Mistral, will also open this year. This is part of a plan to offer free preschool to low income Houstonians within HISD's boundaries.

HISD's site: http://www.houstonisd.org/HISD/portal/arti...1165324,00.html

[Guest danax]

The article doesn't mention where these schools are located. Sounds like Northline and 5th Ward..?

Like the credo "retail follows rooftops" we could also say "blackboards follow babies". So where are young families booming in HISD territory? Seems like most young families that can afford to move to the suburbs once the kids get to be school age, except in River Oaks etc. Which leaves only the ones who can't afford anywhere else.

So, would it be too simplistic to say that, wherever HISD expands is a low-income area and will be for years to come?

[dbigtex56]

What an interesting observation/theory.

I imagine HISD has compiled statistics on demographic trends (and what fun it would be to pore over them). I assume (hope) that they would consider birth rates, income, and transient populations before pouring money into building new schools. Still, I'd hesitate to use them as a bellwether, given Houston's mercurial real estate trends.

An exception which springs to mind is the new HSPVA campus, to be located between W. Dallas - W. Gray, east of Taft (Fourth Ward). The surrounding neighborhoods seem solidly on the upswing. Then too, this is a designated magnet school, not one meant to serve a particular region.

[VicMan]

Hines-Caldwell is along West Orem outside of the 610 loop. Moreno is near Northline Mall.

Moreno: 620 East Canino

Houston, TX 77037-4619

Hines-Caldwell: 5515 West Orem

Houston, TX 77085-1253

"So, would it be too simplistic to say that, wherever HISD expands is a low-income area and will be for years to come?"

Yes, because HISD is also expanding in the Briar Forest area with Daily Elementary School, and in Uptown with St. George Place Elementary.

"Like the credo "retail follows rooftops" we could also say "blackboards follow babies". So where are young families booming in HISD territory? Seems like most young families that can afford to move to the suburbs once the kids get to be school age, except in River Oaks etc. Which leaves only the ones who can't afford anywhere else."

Moreno was built to serve the increasing Hispanic immigrant population near Northline Mall, and Caldwell was built to serve a population that is also zoned to Madison High School (I am not sure what percentage low income they are). Many of them are booming in those locations as well as Gulfton, Briar Forest, the East End that is outside the 610 Loop near Hobby Airport, the area in and around West University Place, and Uptown.