Briargrove Elementary School At 6145 San Felipe St.

[cabanaboy]

what is happening at the old scholl site?

[VicMan]

Houston ISD is tearing down the old school and building a new one.

For now, Briargrove kids will be taught at the St. George Place Elementary campus off of Hildago Street.

[VicMan]

EDIT: I notice that, in the 2007-2008 school year, a lot of apartment complexes south of Westheimer that are zoned to Briargrove in 2006-2007 will be instead zoned to Pilgrim in 2008.

I took this list: http://www.houstoncl.com/briargrove/briargr003.htm

And with the help of these two maps:

*2006-2007: http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/schoolbounda...iargrove_ES.pdf

*2007-2008: http://www.stgeorgeplace.com/HISD__school_zoning_2007.pdf ... I found a list of apartment complexes zoned to Briargrove that will stay, and complexes that won't.

Keep in mind any complexes zoned to Pilgrim for 2006-2007 that are east of Fountainview will be zoned to St. George Place for 2007-2008.

Still in Briargrove

Augusta Court Condominiums 1819 Augusta

Barcelona Apartments 6434 Ella Lee

Briar West Apartments 1950 Winrock

Briarwood Apartments and Townhouses 2520 Winrock

La'tour Fontaine Apartments 2400 Fountain View

Mirage Apartments 2100 Bering

Miramar Townhouses 2380 Bering

Phoenician 2345 Bering

Three Fountains I Apartments 2313 Fountain View

Waters of Winrock 6403 Del Monte

Westbriar Apartments 2530 Briar Ridge #1

Briargrove to Pilgrim before 2007-2008

Gallery Apartments 6220 Fairdale

Greenridge Place Apartments 3000 Greenridge

Lenox 2820 Fountain View and 6014 Winsome

Mariner Pointe 6425 Westheimer

Meridian 6263 Westheimer

Oxford on Greenridge 2815 Greenridge

Tiffany Square Apartments 3030 Greenridge

Trafalgar West Apartment Homes 2900 Briarhurst

And to show how many apartment complexes will share Pilgrim...

Still in Pilgrim

Ashley Square Apartments 6330 Windswept

Constitution Square Apartments 3015 Greenridge #1

Fountainview Lodge 6015 Winsome

Fountainview Lodge II 6100 Fairdale

Hidden Pines 6360 Skyline

Inglewood Village Apartments 6363 Skyline

Inwood Gardens 6110 Fairdale

Registry Apartments 6111 Winsome

Southern Oaks Apartments 6353 Skyline

Stonehaven at the Galleria 6419 Skyline

Unity Pointe Apartments 6370 Windswept

Wintstonian 6041 Winsome

Wilshire Apartments 3304 Fountain View

Windswept Gardens Apartments 6320 Windswept

Pilgrim to St. George Place before 2007-2008

5404 Beverly Hill 5417 Beverly Hill

Tanglewood Place 5920 Beverly Hill

Houston ISD may be doing this to protect property values as well as relieve Briargrove...

Edited August 21, 2006 by VicMan

[TJones]

I can assure you there are some high income families who have friends in high places that have made a few calls to keep their kids away from others, since they feel they are the ones paying the large taxes for what I believe to be THE best elementaries in the city. I was lucky enough to visit a few times as a child during 2nd and 3rd grade, when I was going to Pilgrim. This was the 70's and I remember what a treat it was to go , there was some sort of sharing program between the schools, and you went over there for some special "storytime" and got your face painted. It was just a totally different experience from Pilgrim.

Edited August 22, 2006 by TJones

[VicMan]

I can assure you there are some high income families who have friends in high places that have made a few calls to keep their kids away from others, since they feel they are the ones paying the large taxes for what I believe to be THE best elementaries in the city. I was lucky enough to visit a few times as a child during 2nd and 3rd grade, when I was going to Pilgrim. This was the 70's and I remember what a treat it was to go , there was some sort of sharing program between the schools, and you went over there for some special "storytime" and got your face painted. It was just a totally different experience from Pilgrim.

I had the opposite experience - I went to River Oaks Elementary School. In the 5th grade we travelled to Port Houston Elementary School to learn about the ship channel. The school's cafeteria felt like a prison to me!

[Pumapayam]

Yeah, this whole renovation project HISD is doing, along with Walnut Bend Elementary is part of the "re-investing in our schools" campaign.

[57Tbird]

.... I went to River Oaks Elementary School. ....

Have you seen the R.O. Elementary Alumni website? I contacted the webmaster, Peter Denman, ROE Class of '66, and told him I had some old class photos given to me by a friend who attended. I inquired if he would like to have them for his historical pictures section on the website. He had just started a section with old class photos and he was happy to get them. Check it out if you haven't already.

[KatieDidIt]

Now, if they could only fix Grady middle school....

Actually rezoning all those apartments has more to do with the fact that Briargrove was using over flow buildings at the Post Oak YMCA in order to educate all the kids zoned to the school. With the rezoning The School at Post Oak will close and all will go to Briargrove.

A majority of the non-apartment neighborhood families go into private or move to SBISD for 6th grade and up. IF they rezoned Grady, they might stay.

Edited August 24, 2006 by KatieDidIt

[icepickphil]

I went to Grady when it was still an elementary school in the 60s. What's up with the zoning of it now that's the problem?

Now, if they could only fix Grady middle school....

Actually rezoning all those apartments has more to do with the fact that Briargrove was using over flow buildings at the Post Oak YMCA in order to educate all the kids zoned to the school. With the rezoning The School at Post Oak will close and all will go to Briargrove.

A majority of the non-apartment neighborhood families go into private or move to SBISD for 6th grade and up. IF they rezoned Grady, they might stay.

[KatieDidIt]

Well its now a junior high that is 58% hispanic in a 100% white neighborhood. The TAKS scores are horrible, they average in the low 70s. Kids are coming in from more rough and tumble neighborhoods.

[VicMan]

Well its now a junior high that is 58% hispanic in a 100% white neighborhood. The TAKS scores are horrible, they average in the low 70s. Kids are coming in from more rough and tumble neighborhoods.

Here's Grady's profile:

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/grady_ms.pdf

What Katie says about the racial percentages are true... I'll look at the TAKS scores in a minute.

According to the profile - the TAKS scores average in the 80's with low 90's and high 70's. However Math scores took a downturn in 2004-2005, with the lowest number of passing: 64% of 8th graders passed TAKS Math during that school year. The other two grades were in the mid-to-low seventies.

I have an idea on how to make Grady better.

Since the Sharpstown area also needs a new middle school... we could:

1. Bulldoze Jane Long Middle School and build a brand new Sharpstown Middle School in its place (HISD has plans to build a new school in Sharpstown, but currently it is on hold)

2. Move Jane Long to an area in Gulfton and establish it there

3. Rezone parts or all of the Pilgrim Elementary School area (as of 2008) to Jane Long

4. Bulldoze Grady and rebuild it as a full-service middle school

Jane Long currently serves a sliver of eastern Sharpstown, the Braeburn Elementary School zone, a sliver of Maplewood, and Gulfton.

Edited September 1, 2006 by VicMan

[icepickphil]

Is the current student body of Grady bussed in? If the neighborhood is 100% white where do the Grady students come from?

Are the Tanglewood kids zoned for Revere?

\

Here's Grady's profile:

* http://dept.houstonisd.org/profiles/grady_ms.pdf

What Katie says about the racial percentages are true... I'll look at the TAKS scores in a minute.

According to the profile - the TAKS scores average in the 80's with low 90's and high 70's. However Math scores took a downturn in 2004-2005, with the lowest number of passing: 64% of 8th graders passed TAKS Math during that school year. The other two grades were in the mid-to-low seventies.

I have an idea on how to make Grady better.

Since the Sharpstown area also needs a new middle school... we could:

1. Bulldoze Jane Long Middle School and build a brand new Sharpstown Middle School in its place (HISD has plans to build a new school in Sharpstown, but currently it is on hold)

2. Move Jane Long to an area in Gulfton and establish it there

3. Rezone parts or all of the Pilgrim Elementary School area (as of 2008) to Jane Long

4. Bulldoze Grady and rebuild it as a full-service middle school

Jane Long currently serves a sliver of eastern Sharpstown, the Braeburn Elementary School zone, a sliver of Maplewood, and Gulfton.

[VicMan]

No, Tanglewood's zoned for Grady too.

See, the Grady MS attendance boundary has a lot of apartment complexes with many Hispanic residents - many of them are in the Pilgrim Elementary zoning boundary. Pilgrim Elementary, St. George Place Elementary, and Briargrove Elementary all feed into Grady.

Grady has mostly apartment complex kids but also has a few (probably not the majority, though) single-family housing kids.

DebMartin states that Grady, despite its small student body size, is overcrowded. That is probably one of the chief problems with Grady. Again - Grady should be rebuilt as a big middle school a la Pin Oak Middle School.

Is the current student body of Grady bussed in? If the neighborhood is 100% white where do the Grady students come from?

Are the Tanglewood kids zoned for Revere?

\

Edited September 2, 2006 by VicMan

[icepickphil]

Vicman--I'd imagine all of the Tanglewood kids are in private schools. The Grady apartment kids must live in the apartment complexes you listed a few posts back.

When Grady was an elementary school in the 60s there were only 2 classes per grade. This was before all of the external "shack" buildings were there. There were 34 kids in my K class...with only one teacher, no teaching assistant.

[VicMan]

Anyway - to revive this dead topic, I talked with the mother of one of my friends in the Dairy Ashford area.

She says that some Walnut Bend parents became furious when they found out that West Briar Middle School filled and that they could not send their 6th graders there anymore. The alternative: the dreaded Revere.

So, what if HISD rebuilt Grady to be the size of West Briar/Pin Oak/Lanier and have 1,200 kid capacity? Grady could have full-sized athletic facilities and PreAP and PreIB programs to attract people chiefly in Uptown but also a few in Briar Meadow and Walnut Bend/Briargrove Park. This would also help as this gives another option to Briar Meadow parents in case the Briarmeadow Charter fills.

Edited January 21, 2007 by VicMan

[Pumapayam]

Anyway - to revive this dead topic, I talked with the mother of one of my friends in the Dairy Ashford area.

She says that some Walnut Bend parents became furious when they found out that West Briar Middle School filled and that they could not send their 6th graders there anymore. The alternative: the dreaded Revere.

So, what if HISD rebuilt Grady to be the size of West Briar/Pin Oak/Lanier and have 1,200 kid capacity? Grady could have full-sized athletic facilities and PreAP and PreIB programs to attract people chiefly in Uptown but also a few in Briar Meadow and Walnut Bend/Briargrove Park. This would also help as this gives another option to Briar Meadow parents in case the Briarmeadow Charter fills.

Walnut Bend is right next door to Paul Revere, literally!

It makes more sense anyways.

Blame it on the parents if they are worried about the quality of student at Revere.

Like father like son, like mother like daughter. . .

[KatieDidIt]

Anyway - to revive this dead topic, I talked with the mother of one of my friends in the Dairy Ashford area.

She says that some Walnut Bend parents became furious when they found out that West Briar Middle School filled and that they could not send their 6th graders there anymore. The alternative: the dreaded Revere.

So, what if HISD rebuilt Grady to be the size of West Briar/Pin Oak/Lanier and have 1,200 kid capacity? Grady could have full-sized athletic facilities and PreAP and PreIB programs to attract people chiefly in Uptown but also a few in Briar Meadow and Walnut Bend/Briargrove Park. This would also help as this gives another option to Briar Meadow parents in case the Briarmeadow Charter fills.

Vic. I don't think there really is enough room on that corner to do all that. My son had some T-ball games on the "fields" years back. What is currently open space is very minimal. And, the residents behind it would not put up with a hostile takeover of their properties.

Rezoning to the area is the only way to attract the residents. But currently most of the neighborhood, with that age children, fled to Memorial if they didn't go into private. So, I don't think there are enough kids to warrent a rezone. It's a Catch 22.