Legacy of Educational Excellence High School


Legacy of Educational Excellence High School, formerly Robert E. Lee High School, is a high school in San Antonio, Texas. A part of the North East Independent School District, it serves portions of San Antonio, all of the city of City of Castle Hills, and a portion of Balcones Heights.
Established in 1958, and formerly named after general Robert E. Lee, Lee is host to three magnet schools:
L.E.E. has its own general population that aren't in one of the 3 magnet programs.

History

The school opened in 1958.

Robert E. Lee and Confederate naming

In 1991 the school retired the usage of uniforms for athletes and band members which had Confederate battle flags. The band used to perform a rendition of the song "Dixie" during athletic competitions but NEISD removed this as well; these moves were done to lessen the stigma against the school. For a period the school continued allowing students to display the Confederate battle flag on their clothing and personal items.
The NEISD school board has twice voted on whether to rename the school to address concerns about the safety and focus of students in the context of national debate around memorializing the Confederacy. The board considered whether to rename the school in 2015, after the Charleston church shooting occurred. Lee student Kayla Wilson created an online petition asking for a rename, and students asked the board of trustees of NEISD to consider renaming Lee. Mayor of San Antonio Julián Castro also supported renaming. The vote failed on a 5-2 basis.
In August 2017, after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a San Antonio resident created an online petition to have the school renamed. Another individual created a petition asking for the name to be kept. That month the board voted in favor of retiring the Robert E. Lee name; it did not immediately determine what the new name of the school would be.
The board wished to name the school after an idea instead of a person and asked for suggestions. It received 2,400 proposals, and the district rejected 1,900 of them due to not matching the district's parameters and/or due to obscenities. The San Antonio Express-News characterized several of the proposals as having "offensive and inappropriate references." In October 2017 the NEISD board agreed to change the name of the school to Legacy of Educational Excellence High School on a 5 to 2 vote. The rename took place in fall 2018. Initially the "volunteer" remained as the school's mascot, but in April 2018 the district announced that the new mascot was a military service dog wearing a military service vest after students voted in favor of that mascot.
In addition to the new mascot and name, the statue of Robert E. Lee, along with most other named signs were taken down.

Magnet programs