Category Archives: 2012 bond

New Worthing High School addition nears completion

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Worthing High School’s new classroom wing is in the final stages of completion and will open to students for the start of the upcoming school year.

Recently, Worthing Principal Duane Clark led a group of district and community representatives through the new two-story building for a first-hand look at the new facility, which is Phase 1 of a three-phase construction plan.

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Lamar HS construction plans focus on facilitating new instructional model

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More than 100 students, parents, staff, alumni, and community members turned out for a community meeting Wednesday evening to hear about innovative design plans for the new bond construction project at Lamar High School.

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Plans for new Barbara Jordan High School for Careers get positive feedback from community

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Students, staff and community members at Barbara Jordan High School for Careers received an update on the design and construction process for their new school during a community meeting Tuesday night.

Located in northeast Houston, Jordan is receiving $36.6 million for a new facility featuring labs to support its myriad of career training programs. Jordan currently is transitioning from a career magnet school to a regional Career Hub, allowing students to spend half their day at their home school and the other half at Jordan participating in high-demand, career curriculum.

The new facility will provide 600 to 800 students from area high schools with access to real-world experiences in a variety of professions, including auto/diesel, audiovisual, cosmetology, culinary arts, construction management, marketing, STEM (electronics), and welding.

“We want to make this the best career center that we can put forward,” Jordan High School Principal Ross McAlpine said. “With a lot of the input we’ve received from our CTE teachers, community members, business partners, and trips we’ve taken, I think we really have a good school.”

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Austin High School bond project update draws big crowd

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More than 300 students, staff and community members gathered at Austin High School on Tuesday to get an update on plans to rebuild the 80-year-old school and a first glimpse at what the new facility could look like.

Plans for the campus include modern, open spaces allowing for lots of daylight, better traffic flow in and around the campus, clusters of classrooms to allow for a neighborhood learning concept, and a new, defined entry off of Jefferson Street.

“This really is about our students. We’re providing them with a different type of learning environment,” HISD Design General Manager Dan Bankhead told the crowd, explaining that students no longer sit in rows doing worksheets. “What we find now is students work better when they learn from each other, when they’re collaborative.”
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Construction at new DeBakey HS quickly moving along

The Texas Medical Center will soon welcome its newest neighbor as construction on the new DeBakey High School for Health Professions moves forward at a steady pace.

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Part of the voter-approved 2012 Bond Program, DeBakey will receive a 198,000-square-foot, five-story facility located on the western side of the Medical Center complex.

The $64.5 million building will accommodate 900 to 1,000 students and feature state-of-the-art medical training equipment with teaching labs for dentistry, rehabilitation, and patient care. Mock hospital rooms and science labs intended to mimic real-world research labs also will be included in the new facility.

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Workshop Wednesday features tips for achieving desired results

About 40 business representatives participated in this month’s Workshop Wednesday, hosted by HISD’s Business Assistance Supplier Diversity department, which featured a high-energy interactive presentation by author and artist Amy Malkan entitled Achieving Your Desired Results.

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Malkan led the group through activities and examples demonstrating that most people are conditioned to view situations from a certain point of view. She said that changing your perspective is often effective in improving your outcomes.

“We are conditioned with our own belief system and our perceptions of how we see the world,” Malkan said. “Every one of us have blind spots, but if you can put yourself in the other person’s shoes, whether it’s your customer, your boss, or your spouse, you will be more likely to get a positive result.” Continue reading →

Bond community meetings scheduled at five schools in May, June   

Project updates planned for Jordan, Austin, Lamar, Kashmere high schools, Askew Elementary School

The Houston Independent School District has scheduled five community meetings over the next month to provide updates on the status of bond construction projects.

The meetings are part of the district’s commitment to keeping each community updated during the different stages of their bond project: planning, design, and construction.

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Delmar Fieldhouse construction nearing finish line

For employees and visitors at Houston Independent School District’s Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, watching the new Delmar Fieldhouse take shape over the last several months has been a site to see.

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The 55-year-old athletic complex was demolished in March 2014 to make room for a $35.2 million facility that will be part of the new Delmar-Tusa Athletic Complex. Part of the bond program, the new three-story, 139,000-square-foot facility will serve as a multipurpose facility for the district.

Since construction began, construction crews have been working nonstop completing the installation of underground electrical and plumbing lines, steel beam erection and wall construction.

“We’ve received permanent power to the facility, so that would be considered a major milestone,” said Claude Yoas, Senior Project Manager with Rice & Gardner Consultants, who were hired to provide project management services for the project.

Some building features for the fieldhouse include a basketball and volleyball arena, modern locker and training rooms, and ample athletic storage for the complex’s existing stadium and ball fields.

Despite recent severe weather in Houston, Yoas says construction is still moving forward quickly and is visible.

“The rain hurt us just a little bit, but obviously it would be a delay for any work coming out of the ground,” said Yoas.

The athletic complex is scheduled to be finished this summer and open in time to host fall athletic events.

Community gathers for dedication of new addition at Katherine Smith Elementary

Katherine Smith Elementary School students, staff, parents, and community members gathered at the campus Wednesday morning to celebrate the completion of and officially dedicate the third and final phase of the school’s new building addition.

The construction project included a new library and a multi-purpose cafeteria/auditorium space, which also can be used for a gymnasium. Previous segments of the project, which were part of the 2002 and 2007 bond programs, included Phase 1 construction of 26 classrooms and Phase 2 construction of remaining classrooms, ancillary, special education and administrative offices.

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Student leaders welcomed about 75 attendees in the new auditorium, where they kicked-off the dedication with student performances by the K. Smith Choir and the Second Grade Scholars.

“We are so excited to finally see our new school completed,” Katherine Smith fifth grader Reneijah Richardson told the crowd.

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