HISD will close Ryan, tables plan to merge two high schools

The HISD school board voted 5-3 Thursday night to close Ryan Middle School due to low enrollment over strong objections from Third Ward community members who accused the district of discriminating against black students.

The board, however, unanimously agreed to table a proposal to merge Jones and Sterling high schools, a plan that also drew criticism from south Houston community leaders who said HISD misled them while pushing passage of its $1.9 billion bond referendum last November. Superintendent Terry Grier and the board did not mention school closures or mergers while promoting the bond, which included funding for renovations at Jones and a new building for Sterling.

Roughly two dozen speakers - mostly alumni and community activists - blasted the Houston Independent School District over the closure plans, at times nearing tears and shouting from the audience. They called the Ryan closure "blatantly discriminatory" and warned of "catastrophe" of merging students from rival Jones and Sterling.

Ryan, the district's smallest middle school with 263 students, will close at the end of this academic year. The students will attend Cullen, which is 4 miles away.

"When education leaves a community, that community begins to spiral because that's the centerpiece," said Rev. Reginald Lillie, the president of the NAACP of Houston. "Outside the church, we need education."

Claims of deception

The high school plan effectively called for shutting down Jones. The Sterling students would have been moved to the Jones campus temporarily while Sterling was rebuilt with bond funds; all the students then would have been moved to the new Sterling.

"Do you think you would have passed that bond had you told them you were going to close schools?" Sterling graduate Dikombi Gite asked the board.

Trustee Larry Marshall spurred the postponement, saying he wanted district staff to study whether Sterling could be rebuilt without moving the students to Jones. However, Marshall noted that Jones is under-enrolled, which is the reason Grier has said the school needs to be shuttered. Jones has 446 students, down from 1,168 a decade ago.

Grier and trustee Paula Harris, who represents the affected schools, both were out of town, and their absence inflamed several community leaders who addressed the board.

Mark Smith, HISD's chief school support officer, said the low enrollments at Ryan and Jones made affording adequate programs for the school difficult. HISD has poured extra money into both campuses over the last three years as part of its Apollo reform program, funding tutors and longer school hours.

Arva Howard, an active parent in the Third Ward, said HISD hasn't done enough for Ryan and Jones, letting the buildings crumble, removing the once-popular Vanguard gifted program from Jones and repeatedly changing principals.

"This proposal shows just how little HISD values black children and their neighborhoods," Howard said.

Almost 85 percent of the students at Ryan last year were black, and 72 percent of Jones students were black, according to state data. Overall, HISD is mostly black and Hispanic.

Plans as magnet school

The trustees who voted against the Ryan closure were Manuel Rodriguez Jr., Rhonda Skillern-Jones and Juliet Stipeche.

Grier has said that the Ryan campus could be turned into a magnet school for middle school students focused on health careers, similar to the prestigious DeBakey High. Students from across the district would be able to apply.

In other business, the HISD board voted to maintain roughly the same level of funding for schools next year, leaving the district with a shortfall of between $50 million and $70 million. Grier's administration has said a 6-cent property tax increase would close the gap. The district could make cuts to programs and the central office and dip into savings.