Supt. Terry Grier and his middle schools chief, Dallas Dance, have asked Houston ISD trustees to chip in a total of $1 million in discretionary facilities funds from their own districts to “upgrade” the 86-year-old campus of the district’s new all-girls school launching next month and serving fewer than 200 girls.
And the Examiner has learned that at least two of the students enrolled at the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy aimed at high-achieving, low-income young women are anything but low-income: the daughters of board President Paula Harris, and her friends and key campaign figures Frank and Demetra Jones, who both do business with HISD.
Grier approached all nine trustees in a memo last week, saying the $1 million is needed for such things as upgrading bathrooms and painting classrooms at the campus at 1906 Cleburne St. in Houston’s Third Ward, which most recently housed the Contemporary Learning Center alternative secondary school.
“A small amount from several trustees putting their money together would go a long way,” Grier wrote. “As a reminder, this is a dedicated magnet school with girls coming from across the district.”
Dance used the district-wide enrollment to make a special pitch to selected trustees — including District VII Trustee Harvin Moore — whom he said he was targeting because of a high number of girls enrolled from their areas. In fact, according to HISD figures detailing enrollment at the new school, Moore has the fewest girls from any trustee’s district — only 10 out of the 194 total.
Moore said that although he supports the school, he had to say no to the request. “That’s not the purpose of these funds, and we have a lot of very urgent and overdue needs in my own district, where these funds were actually allocated,” he told the Examiner Tuesday.
In fact, about 40 percent of all enrollment at the all-girls school comes from just two trustees’ districts, with 42 girls from Anna Eastman’s District I and 36 from Harris’ District IV. The rest of the enrollment by trustees’ districts are District V, Mike Lunceford, 24; District III, Manuel Rodriguez, 21; District II, Carol Galloway, 19; District VIII, Juliet Stipeche, 16; District VI, Greg Meyers, 14; and District IX, Larry Marshall, 12.
Ethnic breakdown of the school is 48 percent Hispanic, 40 percent African-American, 6 percent white, with Asians and “other” each accounting for 3 percent.
Neither the all-girls nor the all-boys college prep academies have reached capacity and are still taking applications, HISD reported Tuesday in a news release in which it announced that $45,000 has been contributed by the HISD Foundation and the local United Way to provide enough of the mandatory uniforms for about 180 students who can’t afford them. The release indicated the uniform package will cost $250 for the boys and $260 for the girls.
In the first year, both academies are accepting only sixth- and ninth-grade students, with additional grade levels to be added in subsequent years. Emphasis is on a rigorous college prep curriculum, with extended school hours and a longer school year.
The all-girls academy will be the sixth that the Foundation for the Education of Young Women has helped develop and fund in Texas. The foundation will provide $250,000 a year in funding for the first four years.
You must be signed in to comment
Sign In