John H. Reagan High School (Houston, Texas)

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Reagan High School

John H. Reagan High School is a secondary school located at 413 East 13th Street in Houston, Texas with a zip code of 77008.

Reagan, which handles grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District. Reagan is located in the Houston Heights neighborhood. Reagan, which was named after John H. Reagan, has HISD's computer magnet program.

The school gymnasium is the home court of the Houston Takers, a professional men's basketball team in the American Basketball Association.

As of 2006, the principal of Reagan High School is Connie Berger.^[1]

[edit] History

Reagan was first established in 1904 as Houston Heights High School.^[2] The campus as it is known today was established in 1927. The campus was designed by John Staub and William Ward Watkin, who were designers of the original campus of Rice University. Reagan was first established as an all-White high school. Reagan was relieved by Waltrip High School when Waltrip opened in 1959.^[3] Reagan was desegregated in 1970 and its student body started to become increasingly Hispanic; by 1988 Reagan was mostly Hispanic.^[4]

The school gained national attention during the 2006 U.S. immigration reform protests when Robert Pambello, the principal, placed a Mexican flag on the flagpole to show solidarity with the students' ideas. He was ordered to take the flag down by Houston ISD officials since flying another country's flag next to the U.S. flag is not allowed in HISD schools since it shows loyalty to another country.^[5] Pambello announced that he would resign for personal reasons in May 2006.^[6]

In 2007 Johns Hopkins University referred to Reagan as a "dropout factory" ^[7].

[edit] Enrollment

As of the 2006-2007 school year, Reagan High School has an enrollment of 1,707 students in grades 9-12.

• 88% was Hispanic American
• 7% was African-American
• 4% was White
• 1% was Asian American

No Native Americans were enrolled during that year.

73% of students qualified for free or reduced lunch.^[8]

[edit] School Remodeling

Set to end in the summer of 2007, the remodeling of Reagan HS include the building of a new cafeteria, gymnasium complex, academic building, vocational building, and a library. The classes that cannot be held on the new buildings are temporarily being held on portable trailers.

[edit] Neighborhoods served by Reagan

Reagan, which handles grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District. Reagan is located in the Houston Heights neighborhood. Reagan takes students from^[9] most of the Heights, a portion of Downtown Houston, a very small portion of the Fourth Ward, East Norhill, Woodland Heights, Brooksmith, Magnolia Grove, Stude, Proctor Plaza [1], the Old Sixth Ward, and a small portion of Midtown. Other parts of Houston northwest of Downtown within the 610 Loop are zoned to Reagan.

At one point, all of the Houston Heights was zoned to Reagan. In 1997, a small portion was rezoned to Waltrip.^[10]

[edit] Feeder patterns

Elementary schools that feed into Reagan^[9] include:

• Browning^[11]
• Field^[12]
• Harvard^[13]

(partial)

• Crockett^[14]
• Gregory-Lincoln Education Center^[15]
• Helms^[16]
• Jefferson^[17]
• Ketelsen^[18]
• Love^[19]
• Memorial^[20]
• Travis^[21]

The following middle schools have portions of their attendance boundaries that coincide with Reagan's:

• Gregory-Lincoln Education Center^[22]
• Alexander Hamilton^[23]
• Hogg^[24]
• E. O. Smith Education Center (middle school)^[25]

[edit] School uniforms

As of 2006, Reagan students are required to wear school uniforms.^[26] Uniforms consist of white and maroon polo shirts with Reagan logos and black, denim, khaki, or navy trousers.

The Texas Education Agency specified that the parents and/or guardians of students zoned to a school with uniforms may apply for a waiver to opt out of the uniform policy so their children do not have to wear the uniform ^[27]; parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.

[edit] Notable alumni

• Red Adair (Notable oil well firefighter who extinguished the "The Devil's Cigarette Lighter")^[28]
• A. J. Foyt, Sr. - father of A. J. Foyt, Jr.^[28]
• Mary Kay - founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics^[28]
• Richard "Racehorse" Haynes (Criminal defense attorney)^[28]
• Larry Hovis (actor)^[28]
• Raymond Knight (U.S. Army Air Corps)^[28]
• Everett Augustus "Squatty" Lyons (retired Harris County Commissioner for Precinct 4)^[28]
• Dan Rather (Journalist)^[28]
• Craig Reynolds (professional baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, and Houston Astros)^[28]
• Martha Wong, former Texas state representative^[28]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Reagan High School