Aldine Independent School District


The Aldine Independent School District is a public school district based in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, United States. It serves portions of Houston and unincorporated Harris County. Aldine ISD serves the communities of Aldine, most of Greenspoint, most of East Aldine, and portions of Airline, Acres Homes, Kinwood, Bordersville, and Inwood Forest. The district is part of the taxation base for the Lone Star College System. As of 2020, LaTonya Goffney serves as superintendent of schools.

History

The origin and story of the Aldine Independent School District begins before the founding of the district itself in 1935. What would eventually become AISD actually started as a series of one-room schoolhouses in the late 1870s located in what was then sparsely populated and rural north and north central Harris County, Texas.
In 1876, after a series of new education laws, Harris County authorized the creation of several school communities. Harris County School Community No. 1, the Westfield School Community, was established by W. L. Higgs, H. Illonefield and James McLeod on September 30, 1876. Harris County School Community No. 13, the Durdin School Community, was established by G. L. Durdin, Pleasant Smith Humble, and H. Smith on December 22, 1876. On 18 November 1881, the trustees of Westfield Community No. 1 were authorized to sell off the old school house and one acre of land, and put the proceeds towards the debts against the new school house.
On 17 February 1882, the area was defined as Harris County Election Precinct No. 23, with the following boundaries: "Beginning where the HE & WT Railroad crosses the line of Harris and Montgomery Counties. Thence with County Line to mouth of Cypress Creek. Thence up said creek to the east line of the G H Delesdernier survey. Thence with line of Delesdernier & Walters surveys to SW corner of Walter Survey. Thence to head of Halls Bayou. Thence to HE & WT Railroad at or near N. W. Corner of Harris and Wilson Surey. Thence with said Railroad to place of beginning. The voting place of said precinct shall be "H. Tantenhahn Store" and H. Tantenhan the Presiding Officer there of."
In 1883, 38 students were being educated in the Westfield community, and 20 students in the Higgs community.
In the mid-1880s, the Harris County Commissioners Court consolidated the local school communities into one school district: Harris County Common School District 29 on 18 June 1884. A single three-person board directed activities of the district for four decades.
For the 1909–1910 school year, teachers included: Nellie Mae Pattison, Mary S. Smith, Alice Haley, Fannie B. Smith, Pinkis Ellisor, and Minerva Jones. Ida L. Green taught colored students at the Higgs School. Trustees were E. H. Durdin, W. G. Jones, and Harry Ashton.
A trustee election was held on 9 April 1910 at the Higgs and Aldine Schoolhouses. W. G. Jones was elected over A. W. Charpiot and. R. Tautenhahn. On 19 February 1910, a schoolhouse bond of $8,000 was passed by the citizens.

School trustees for 1911–1912 were W. G. Jones, E. H. Durdin and George W. Shramm. Principal of the Aldine School was L. D. Washington.
In 1912–1913, District 29 had three intermediate schools : Aldine, Westfield and Higgs. It also had one high school that educated students in grades 8 and 9: Hartwell. School trustees were E. H. Durdin, W. G. Jones and Harry Ashton. Teachers for that year were Nellie Mae Patterson, Alice Haley, Fannie B. Smith, Pinkis Ellisor, Minerva Jones.
For 1913–1914, the Westfield school was not in operation.
The Brubaker community was added as other districts around Aldine were dissolved.
A 1934 map of Harris County school districts shows the Aldine School near the intersection of Aldine-Bender and Aldine-Westfield, the Brubaker School near the intersection of Blue Bell Road and East Montgomery, the Higgs School on Lee Road at Garners Bayou, just south of Humble-Westfield Road, the Westfield School on the south side of Humble-Westfield Road, just west of Hardy, and the Hartwell School near the southwest corner of Humble-Westfield and Aldine-Westfield Road.
On June 18, 1932, District 29 residents voted 123-44 for a $40,000 bond to consolidate the four white schoolhouses into one new centralized school. This two-story brick building would contain 12 classrooms and an auditorium. It would house grades 1-7 and allow the district to offer high school classes for the first time since the Hartwell School had closed.
When the 1932-33 school year began, high school students met at Memorial Baptist Church, located at East Montgomery Road and Gulf Bank. The new, as yet unnamed school opened in February 1933 at the intersection of Aldine-Bender Road and Aldine Westfield and immediately was filled to capacity.
District 29 added grades 10 and 11 in 1933-34 to complete what was then considered a full high school program.
On May 25, 1934, the now-christened S.M.N. Marrs School graduated its first class, consisting of nine students. S. M. N. Marrs was named for Starlin Marion Newberry Marrs, who served as the state superintendent of public instruction for Texas from 1923 to 1932.
Roughly a year later, in the spring of 1935, District 29 absorbed part of Common School District 49, also known as the North Houston District.
In the mid-1930s, more and more common school districts across the state were becoming independent school districts. On May 4, 1935, voters in Common School District 29 approved creation of the Aldine Independent School District by a 128 to 28 margin. Being independent created several advantages for the district, which included more local control, and increased taxing authority. Common school districts did not collect taxes. They received appropriations from the county based on taxable land in their boundaries. By becoming an independent school district, the district could tax property directly and be out from under the control of the Harris County School Board.
With the S.M.N. Marrs School filled to capacity, AISD voters approved 57-14 a $25,000 bond for construction of a new 10-classroom junior/senior high school building on September 7, 1935. This new building opened in 1936 next door to the Marrs School on Aldine-Westfield Road. It too was named S.M.N. Marrs.
AISD acquired part of Common School District 26, also known as the White Oak District, in 1937. This added portions of Acres Homes to AISD. Included was the White Oak School, which became the district's school for blacks.
In the spring of 1948, AISD opened a yet another high school located immediately to the north of S.M.N. Marrs High. This school was named Aldine High School, after the nearby community. The former Marrs High School was turned into a junior high school.
In 1953 a second elementary school was built at 222 Raymac and was named Inez Carroll after a former educator in the district.
On November 24, 1954, the main building of Aldine High School was destroyed by a six-alarm fire. A new high school campus was built in 1956 at 11101 Airline Drive at West Road on the site of the former Gulf Coast Airport.

Desegregation

In 1964, George Franklin Sampson attempted to enroll his children at Aldine High School. The district denied his request and informed him that his children were required to attend Carver High School, the district's black school. Sampson filed a lawsuit against the district, Sampson and the United States v. Aldine Independent School District, arguing that Aldine ISD's separate schools for black students were illegal. The court ruled in favor of Sampson, requiring the district to integrate its schools.
In 1977, although Aldine ISD was almost 75% white, the district still had several schools which were all black. As a result, the district was placed under a federal court order to redraw attendance zones so that every school in 1978 would have less than 30% black enrollment. The order also stated that for each subsequent year the district must keep black enrollment at every school within 15% of the district average and that the percentage of black teachers at each school should be within 5% of the district average at primary schools and 10% at secondary schools. The court order was removed on December 5, 2002.

Recognition

Aldine ISD received the Broad Prize for Urban Education in 2009 and was a finalist for the award in 2004, 2005, and 2008. The district received a Magna Award in 1999 from the American School Board Journal for its "Benchmark Targets for Academic Achievement" program. The school board was listed as the Outstanding School Board by the Texas Association of School Administrators in 1973 and 1998, and was listed as an Honor Board in 2013.

Demographics

For the 2018–2019 school year, AISD had a total enrollment of 66,854 students. 87.2% of students were economically disadvantaged, 34.6% were English Language Learners, and 8.1% received Special Education Services.
Ethnic Distribution
As of the 2010–2011 school year, the appraised valuation of property in the district was $12,523,849,000. The maintenance tax rate was $0.113 and the bond tax rate was $0.017 per $100 of appraised valuation.

Academic achievement

In 2011, the school district was rated "academically acceptable" by the Texas Education Agency. Forty-nine percent of districts in Texas in 2011 received the same rating. No state accountability ratings will be given to districts in 2012. A school district in Texas can receive one of four possible rankings from the Texas Education Agency: Exemplary, Recognized, Academically Acceptable, and Academically Unacceptable.
Historical district TEA accountability ratings

Alternative schools

High schools

Senior High Schools (10–12)

Former Intermediate Schools–Now Elementary Schools (5–6)

Hill Elementary School
The current headquarters building is the M.B. Sonny Donaldson Administration Building, a two-story facility in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, across from Nimitz High School. The school district acquired the facility in spring 2015 from Baker Hughes and opened it on March 21, 2016, with the dedication ceremony on April 19 of that year. The funds to purchase it came from the general operating budget.
The previous headquarters were in East Aldine. After serving as the headquarters for a period of over 50 years, the former headquarters has since been demolished