Northside Independent School District

This article is about the district which serves the San Antonio area. For the Northside ISD near Vernon, see Northside Independent School District (Wilbarger County, Texas).
Northside Independent School District
Location
United States
District information
Type Public
Grades K-12
Superintendent Dr. Brian Woods
Deputy Superintendent(s) Ray Galindo, Oscar Cardenas, Dr. Linda Mora
District ID 4833120
Students and staff
Students 100,000+
Teachers 6240
Staff 12847
Student-teacher ratio 15.6:1
Other information
Website nisd.net

Northside Independent School District is a school district headquartered in Leon Valley, Texas.[1][2] It is the largest school district in the San Antonio area and the fourth largest[3] in the State of Texas (and is projected to surpass the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District for the third-place position). Northside serves 355 square miles (920 km2) of urban landscape, suburban growth and rural territory in the San Antonio suburbs and the Hill Country. Northside is roughly 50 percent built out with the center of the district's boundaries near Helotes, just north of the Bandera Road and Loop 1604 intersection. Because of fast-paced growth, the district envisions possibly another four high schools over the next few decades, including far west areas off Potranco Road and Hwy 211 (near the Medina County line), Culebra Road (FM 471) past Talley Road, I-10 near Boerne Stage Road (north of the Dominion) and far north Bandera Road (Hwy 16) near the Pipe Creek/Bandera County/Medina County areas.

Northside ISD serves a portion of the city of San Antonio as well as the cities of Grey Forest, Leon Valley, Shavano Park, Helotes, and the unincorporated communities of Cross Mountain, Leon Springs, and Scenic Oaks. The district also serves some unincorporated portions of Bexar, Bandera and Medina counties.

In 2011, the school district was rated "recognized" by the Texas Education Agency for the fourth consecutive year.[4]

Campuses

Northside ISD has over 110 campus locations:

Traditional high schools

Northside has chosen a unique method of naming its traditional high schools; each school is named for a former or current United States Supreme Court justice. Under current district policy,[5] eighth graders who will be part of a new high school's first graduating class are encouraged to research prior justices and submit nominations.

The justices so honored are Louis D. Brandeis, Tom C. Clark, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Jay, John Marshall (the oldest high school; originally named Northside Rural High School but later renamed to conform to the naming convention), Sandra Day O'Connor (attended the school's dedication), John Paul Stevens (also attended the school's dedication), William Howard Taft, and Earl Warren. The district's 10th high school, which opened in 2010, honors justice William J. Brennan.

Magnet high schools

Middle schools

Elementary schools

Ed Cody Elementary School, which opened in 1982 and is located at 10403 Dugas Drive adjacent to Fillmore Street, is named for Edmund D. Cody, the LISD superintendent from 1965 to 1982.
Thomas L. Hatchett Sr. Elementary School at 10700 Ingram Road in San Antonio was named in 2005 for an African-American educator (1932-2003) and native of Navasota, Texas, who began his teaching career after retiring in 1971 from the United States Air Force.[7]
  • May
  • McDermott
  • Mead
  • Meadow Village
  • Michael
  • Mireles
  • Murnin
  • Myers
  • Nichols
  • Northwest Crossing
  • Oak Hills Terrace
  • Ott
  • Passmore
  • Powell
  • Raba
  • Rhodes
  • Scarborough
  • Scobee
  • Steubing
  • Thornton
  • Timberwilde
  • Valley Hi
  • Villarreal
  • Wanke
  • Ward
  • Westwood Terrace

In addition, two other schools opened in the Westwinds area in 2011 and in the Bandera Road North area in 2012.

Special schools

Student locator project

The school district has spent over $500,000 on a system whereby students wear an RFID chip and barcode around their necks, allowing the school to track their location during the school day. The students need the tag "to use the library or cafeteria, vote in school elections, and in some cases for toilet breaks".[8] One student was expelled in 2012 after refusing to either wear the tag or to wear a version of it that included the barcode but not the RFID tag. Her objections were for reasons of religion, privacy, and freedom of expression; the school had also forbidden her from handing out leaflets criticizing the program. She later returned to the school following a judge's injunction.[8] The school district's website was brought down in retaliation for the program. An individual claiming responsibility for the website disruption described the school district as "pervs" for their policy of RFID tracking children.[9]

Effective for the 2013-2014 school year, the RFID tracking program has been discontinued. Even during the controversy, the program was very limited in scope. The schools chosen have the fewest percentage of white students (Jones M.S.: 4% and John Jay H.S.: 13%).

History

The district was formed in 1949 via consolidation of several rural school districts, having a mere 823 students:

A San Antonio School district is investigating an incident in which a John Jay High school football player ran into the back of a referee watching a play and another player then dove into the official after he fell. Both players were ejected from the game.

Pascual Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Northside Independent School District, told The Associated Press that video of the incident was "extremely disturbing.

Gonzalez said the district is investigating and will hold a due process hearing with interviews with game officials, coaches and students.

"It is not the good sportsmanlike behavior that we teach students, he said.

"The first thing we want is that those two kids never play football again." Wayne Elliott, Austin Football Officials Association secretary The team from John Jay High School in San Antonio was playing Marble Falls High School in Marble Falls, located about 86 miles north of San Antonio.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Contact Northside ISD." Northside Independent School District. March 12, 2011. "5900 Evers Rd. • San Antonio, TX 78238-1606"
  2. ↑ "Leon Valley city, Texas." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on March 12, 2011.
  3. ↑ Facts and Figures : Northside Independent School District - San Antonio, TX 78238
  4. ↑ "2009 Accountability Rating System". Texas Education Agency.
  5. ↑ http://www.tasb.org/policy/pol/private/015915/pol.cfm?DisplayPage=CW(LOCAL).html Local District Policy for naming schools
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Blue Ribbon Schools Program, Schools Recognized 1982-1983 Through 1999-2002 (PDF)
  7. ↑ "Namesake: Thomas L. Hatchett, Sr.". nisd.net. Retrieved October 17, 2014.
  8. 1 2 Thomson, Iain (November 21, 2012), Texan schoolgirl expelled for refusing to wear RFID tag, The Register, retrieved December 11, 2012
  9. ↑ Sharwood, Simon (November 27, 2012), ‘Anonymous’ takes down Texan RFID-tracking school, The Register, retrieved December 11, 2012

External links

Coordinates: 29°28′29″N 98°34′53″W / 29.47472°N 98.58139°W / 29.47472; -98.58139

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