Barbara Jordan High School is receiving $36.6 million under the bond program for a new school that will serve as a career and technical training hub for any interested students attending nine nearby high schools: Davis, Furr, Kashmere, North Forest, Reagan, Houston MSTC, Washington, Wheatley, and Yates.
Students will spend part of the day at their home school and the other part at Jordan. The transition to a career hub will take place as the school is rebuilt.
The school held its first community meeting in October to gather feedback on proposed design concepts. The new school would feature a central administration area, with the automotive shop, precision metal, and construction programs in one wing of the building and quieter programs, such as human sciences, on the other side.
The main entrance would be off Kelley Street, but the school also would offer an equally welcoming space for students coming into the school from the back, where buses would drop off. The goal is to create a building that will have a presence on a very visible site. Jordan is located at 5800 Eastex Freeway, at the intersection of U.S. 59 and Loop 610. In addition to lab space, the school would feature a learning commons with a monumental staircase that could be used for everything from studying to lectures. Because students will be traveling to Barbara Jordan from their home campuses, the building would feature grab-and-go lunch options.
Construction is tentatively slated to start in the second half of 2016, and would take approximately two years. A second community meeting to discuss the design development will be held in mid-2016.