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  1. #1
    Senior Member bigtex's Avatar
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    Two Texas High Schools Closed

    This is a follow up on a posting here about two months ago reporting that 5 Texas school would be shut down this year for failing Texas accountability testing. Today it was announced that two of them will be shut down. As you can imagine, both of these schools are over 90% Hispanic and quite a large percentage of both schools are "undocumented" immigrants. This is what is happening to our school slowly but surely. Of course in the process American citizens who have dedicated their lives to educating our youth are held accountable and end up losing jobs as teachers at both of these high school have.

    http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-674123-.html#674123


    June 5, 2008, 3:28PM
    HISD hopes to open a redesigned Sam Houston in fall

    By ERICKA MELLON
    Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle


    HISD's Sam Houston High School was ordered shut down today by the Texas education commissioner for repeatedly failing to meet minimum academic standards.

    Sam Houston is expected to earn an "unacceptable" rating from the state for a sixth consecutive year — the worst academic record in Texas.

    Yet, HISD officials said at a press conference this afternoon that they're optimistic they'll earn state approval for a plan to keep a reinvented Sam Houston open. If approved, students could have access to new programs at the school in August, Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said.

    The Texas Education Agency may require HISD to replace about 75 percent of Sam Houston teachers. It may also require HISD to reduce the number of students enrolled and to change the campus' name.

    Roughly 2,500 predominantly poor, Hispanic students attend the school in north Houston. About 170 teachers work there.

    Executive Principal Julia Gajardo broke the news to teachers with a recorded phone message. She began by thanking them for their hard work.

    "I regret to inform you, though, that we were not able to make quite enough academic progress at Sam Houston this year to earn a rating of academically acceptable. Therefore, the Texas commissioner of education has ordered Sam Houston High School closed. But the commissioner will allow us to redesign the school and open again in August," the message said.

    Gajardo also asked teachers to attend a meeting on Monday to discuss the school's future.

    ericka.mellon@chron.com
    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5821154.html


    EDUCATION
    State orders closure of Johnston
    East Austin high school will reopen with new mission in the fall.


    By Laura Heinauer
    AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
    Thursday, June 05, 2008

    When the last bell of the school year rang just after 1 p.m. Wednesday at Johnston High School, unbeknownst to students and staff, it tolled the end of the 47-year-old school itself.

    The state, which has rated Johnston "academically unacceptable" for the past four years based on passing rates on state achievement tests and dropout rates, ordered the campus closed Wednesday for failing to meet standards for the fifth year. It is the first school to be closed under the state's accountability law.

    The Austin school district plans to reopen the campus with a new name and new faculty members to serve a different mission. At least 50 percent of the students previously served at Johnston must be reassigned to other campuses and at least 75 percent of the teachers must also be reassigned, according to state law.

    The outcome is what district officials and some local politicians, including Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, had been hoping for — one that allows the district to maintain control of the school and prevents the building from sitting empty. The state could have closed the campus without allowing it to reopen or put it under alternative management.

    The district still has to come up with a plan for the 2008-09 school year that is acceptable to the state. Officials propose reopening with a heavy emphasis on individual instruction and career training. By the 2009-10 school year, Superintendent Pat Forgione said the campus could open with a technology program or with an early college start program with help from Austin Community College.

    Although he has criticized proposals to close schools in the past, Forgione said he was "very pleased" with Wednesday's news.

    "We're at the very edge ... some might say the bleeding edge, of this law," Forgione said at a news conference that Watson also attended. Watson said that although he has several issues with the particulars of what could be a very "punitive" law, he was happy that the state and the Austin district came to an agreement that other schools in similar situations could use. Texas Education Agency officials said Houston's Sam Houston High School has been unacceptable for five years and also faces possible closure. Two other schools have been unacceptable for four years and also face closure.

    Reached by phone, state Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said, "I think this reconstitution is very creative, and I think it will be very helpful for the students as well as for the school."

    But state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, said Wednesday in a statement that, "It is incumbent upon the Legislature to revisit the issue of automatic closure of schools ... and to develop procedures to encourage and ensure all of our children, especially those who are disadvantaged, reach their full potential."

    District officials said they didn't immediately know exactly how many Johnston students will be affected by the closure or to which schools students will be reassigned.

    Of about 600 students enrolled at Johnston in the spring, 20 percent are graduating. About 50 percent of incoming freshmen from the Johnston attendance zone decided to go to other schools. Last year, trustees discussed possibly sending students to Reagan, LBJ, McCallum, Travis and Austin high schools if Johnston were closed.

    District officials plan to meet with members of the Johnston community today at 5:30 p.m. at the campus, 1012 Arthur Stiles Road, to discuss the next steps. The school board will hear about plans for the campus at a meeting Monday.

    School board President Mark Williams said trustees are committed to making a plan to "repurpose" Johnston a success. "It's embarrassing to reach this point since we haven't changed, but change we must."

    To stave off the state-ordered closure, Johnston students were required to improve in 16 categories on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Students came close, according to preliminary results released by district officials. They hit their marks in nearly every category. It also appeared that Johnston's "completion rate," a dropout rate, also fell short.

    Education Commissioner Robert Scott said despite gains, the campus would again earn an "academically unacceptable" rating, the lowest, when state accountability ratings are issued Aug. 1.

    "The closure of Johnston High School will be a challenge for the community that it serves, but my greatest concern is for each student's education. State law requires that the students assigned to Johnston be provided a more effective learning environment," Scott told Austin officials. Scott said Pearce Middle School in Northeast Austin, which has failed to meet standards for the fourth year, will remain open.

    Place 2 Austin Trustee Sam Guzman, whose district includes Johnston, said "I want to be the first to invite Commissioner Scott to visit the newly repurposed Johnston High School in the fall. ... Trustees and the Johnston community are committed to achieving greater things for our students."

    Albert Sydney Johnston High School, named for a Confederate general buried in the Texas State Cemetery, opened its doors in 1960.

    Johnston has struggled for years with high turnover among teachers and administrators — 11 principals in 12 years before Celina Estrada-Thomas came in 2005 — and dwindling enrollment. With about 650 students enrolled in the fall, Johnston was less than half full.

    Estrada-Thomas, who is leaving the district to lead Bastrop High School, has walked neighborhood streets and knocked on doors to fight apathy at the school: Officials have reported that more than 600 of Johnston's 760 students had more than 10 unexcused absences in the 2006-07 school year — nearly 80 percent of students missed two weeks of class or more.

    In Johnston's final hour, district officials praised students during a pizza party celebrating improvements made on the TAKS. Unaware of Scott's decision, students had decorated the campus with strands of bright silly string, colored foam and balloons.

    Estrada-Thomas, before a bank of television news cameras at the school Wednesday evening, said, "The kids are probably finding out (about the closure) as they're listening to me now. I think it's really going to catch them off guard."

    Johnston senior Jade Bradley, who is graduating Friday, said she was stunned to hear of her alma mater's fate.

    "I'm so shocked by that. That's crazy. Wow," she said Wednesday evening. Bradley, who plans to attend Texas Tech University and major in math and computer science, said she's sad that she will be among the school's last graduates.

    At a repurposed Johnston, she said, "everything is going to be different. It's not going to be the same."

    Johnston parent Anna Jimenez graduated from the school in 1992. Her son Art will graduate Friday.

    "It's hard to accept," Jimenez said, "but ... you kind of expected that some change is going to happen."

    Additional material by staff writers Molly Bloom and Regina Dennis. lheinauer@statesman.com; 445-3694

    http://www.statesman.com/search/content ... nston.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    Of course in the process American citizens who have dedicated their lives to educating our youth are held accountable and end up losing jobs as teachers at both of these high school have
    And parents who pay taxes end up home schooling and paying or paying for private schools if they can afford it so their kids get an education.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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    lateone's Avatar
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    I imagine its very hard to do homework after working in the feilds all day for some low life illegal alien farm contractor.

  4. #4
    Senior Member bigtex's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lateone
    I imagine its very hard to do homework after working in the feilds all day for some low life illegal alien farm contractor.
    These here in Houston certainly don't work in any fields, nor do the ones in Austin.

    Its very hard to teach these kids when they don't show up for school and all they think about is smoking weed and running the streets in gangs. There is no teacher in Sam Houston HS that would even bother giving homework. They know it would not be done. There is an old saying about you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink it. When parents don't value and education then how do we expect to educate their kids?
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