Alief Elsik High School

Alief Elsik High School
Address
Main campus: 12601 High Star Drive Houston, TX 77072-1197 Ninth grade center: 6767 S. Dairy Ashford Houston, TX 77072
Coordinates	29°42′36″N95°36′11″W / 29.710°N 95.603°W / 29.710; -95.603
Information
Type	Public
Motto	"Champions... Leaving a legacy!"
Established	1975
School district	Alief Independent School District
Principal	Tina Elzy
Teaching staff	263.96 (FTE) [1]
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	4,123 (2021–2022) [1]
Student to teacher ratio	15.62 [1]
Campus	City: Large
Color(s)	Columbia blue and white
Athletics	Football, basketball, track, tennis, golf, baseball, softball, soccer
Mascot	Rocky the Ram
Team name	Rams
Rival	Alief Hastings High School
Yearbook	Ramblings
Website	Elsik High School
Elsik 9th Grade Center

Alief Elsik High School is a high school in the Alief region of Houston, Texas, United States.

Elsik is divided into two campuses: the main campus (12601 High Star in Houston, zip code 77072), and the Alief Elsik Ninth Grade Center (located at 6767 South Dairy Ashford, city of Houston, 77072), which serves ninth graders. Both campuses, which are in the Alief Independent School District, serve grades 9 through 12. The ninth grade campus is located in the International District although the main high school building is outside of it. ^[2]

The school's mascot is a ram, and the school's basketball and football teams are well known throughout Texas, as is the speech and debate team. The school is considered to have the best speech and debate team in all of Houston, placing in the top ten qualifiers in the state of Texas as well as sweepstakes winners in the NFL state tournament. The academic teams at Alief Elsik - Academic Decathlon, Star Academic Challenge, and various UIL organizations - participate in regional, state, and national competitions.^{[ citation needed ]}

Alief Hastings High School sits adjacent to Elsik, and is considered to be its brother school. The two schools enjoy a friendly rivalry that heats up each year in the final football game when they play each other in a shared football stadium.

Alief's three traditional high schools, Elsik, Hastings, and the more recent Alief Taylor High School, now follow a seven period schedule. On Monday through Friday there are 50 minute classes, with an hour-and-thirty-minute lunch period (5th period). Wednesdays have 40 minutes of class time, which is used to give teachers a meeting day after school. This has been in effect since the 2007-2008 school year began.

Currently, Elsik has a night school, much like its fellow Alief high schools.

AP and Honors classes are graded on a 5.0 grading scale, while all other classes are graded on a 4.0 scale. Dual credit programs for US History are offered for juniors, and English, Sociology, Government, and Economics are also offered to seniors.

In 2019, Elsik received a C grade from the Texas Education Agency.

History

[Interactive fullscreen map + nearby articles]

Campuses in Houston

Elsik opened in 1975 on the same campus as Hastings High School, as what is now known as Hastings South. The first year Elsik only enrolled freshmen, and added classes every year thereafter, until it had all four grades, with the first freshman class from 1975-76 graduating in 1979. While the two schools were divided by a large courtyard and bus run, there was frequent contact with students from the other campus, which made for interesting times during sporting events between the two schools. Certain classes were shared by both Hastings and Elsik, such as machine shop, art, and Accelerated Learning or "Honor Roll" classes.

A separate school building partially opened in January, 1982 one block away from Hastings. The original portions were known at the time as the North House and the C Building. The remainder of the building, known as the South House, opened in January, 1983. During the construction of the South House, temporary walls existed in the South Cafeteria and classroom wing, dividing the completed portion of the building from that portion still under construction. Even after the new building was complete, certain classes and sporting facilities were shared between the two schools.

In the late 1980s, a separate building was built bridging the two schools on land formerly used for physical education. This new building was almost like a separate school and included its own cafeteria. It mainly filled the need for shared classes in one centralized, easily accessible location for students. It is known as the Annex. Elsik High School is one of the largest high schools in the state.

Academics

For the 2018-2019 school year, the school received a C grade from the Texas Education Agency, with an overall score of 79 out of 100. The school received a C grade in two domains, Student Achievement (score of 76) and Closing the Gaps (score of 75), and a B grade in School Progress (score of 81). The school did not receive any of the seven possible distinction designations. ^[3]

Demographics

In the 2021–2022 school year, there were 4,123 students. 0.5% were American Indian/Alaska Native, 26.2% were African American, 8.9% were Asian, 60.8% were Hispanic, 0.2% were Pacific Islander, 3.0% were White, and 0.4% were two or more races. 77.2% of students were eligible for free or reduced price lunch, and the school was eligible to receive Title I funding. ^[1]

Feeder patterns

All Alief ISD elementary, intermediate, and middle schools feed into Elsik, as high school placement in Alief ISD is determined by a lottery: the lottery can result in either Elsik, Hastings, or Taylor. ^[4] If a student was selected by lottery to attend a high school different from the high school of a relative currently attending or graduated from, the student may opt to transfer to that respective school. Students may also complete an application for the district's magnet high school, Kerr.

The lottery system was originally developed to create balanced demographics in Alief's high schools when it was found that there was no simple geographic method of dividing the school district that would be fair and equitable. As a result of the lottery, the demographics of Alief's high schools are virtually identical. However, it is common that neighbors who had attended the same elementary and middle schools must instead go to different high schools. Alief's relatively small geographic area permits the lottery in that anyone in the school district has reasonable access to the high schools. A similar lottery in a larger school districts would result in placing a much larger burden on students as they would have to travel farther.

Neighborhoods served by AISD include Alief, most of the New Chinatown, most of Westchase, Bellaire West, and most of Leawood and the Alief community center.

Notable alumni

• Christopher Ayres, voice actor ^[5]
• Beyoncé, singer ^[6]
• Carmen Cusack, actress ^[7]
• Adaora Elonu, professional basketball player ^[8]
• Chinemelu Elonu, professional basketball player ^[9]
• Donovan Greer, professional football player ^[10]
• Jennifer Haley, playwright ^[11]
• Warrick Holdman, professional football player ^[12]
• Rashard Lewis, professional basketball player ^[13]
• Lizzo, singer ^[14]
• Rasika Mathur, comedian ^[15]
• Janine Nabers, playwright
• Tobe Nwigwe, musician
• Elliot Segal, disc jockey

References

1. "Search for Public Schools - ELSIK H S (480783000103)". National Center for Education Statistics . Institute of Education Sciences . Retrieved October 26, 2023.
2. "International District with Campus Network, 2010". International District . Retrieved 2019-08-14.
3. Overview: Elsik H S. Texas Education Agency. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
4. "2010-2011 Alief ISD Registration Times, Dates, & Requirements Archived 2012-04-06 at the Wayback Machine ." Alief Independent School District. Retrieved on October 16, 2011. "Students receive their assignments to Elsik, Hastings, or Taylor High School by means of a computerized random-draw system. Following the draw assignment, those who are interested in attending Kerr High School may apply for admission"
5. Martin, Betty (July 11, 2002). "Famed musical opens Friday at westside theater". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
6. "Beyoncé Knowles' Biography". Fox News . April 15, 2008. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
7. Evans, Everett (16 March 2010). "Pacific's Carmen Cusack is in love with wonderful role". Houston Chronicle . Retrieved 31 December 2020.
8. Cessna, Robert (1 February 2009). "A&M's Elonu steps out of brother's shadow". The Eagle . Retrieved 31 December 2020.
9. "Texas A&M bio". AggieAthletics.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
10. "PB&J smoothie from 713-Juice-Bar". Fox 26 Houston . 18 June 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
11. Dansby, Andrew (11 May 2016). "Lighting the dark that crime procedurals don't". Houston Chronicle . Retrieved 31 December 2020.
12. "Broncos' Holdman hospitalized after spine injury". Houston Chronicle . Associated Press. 3 August 2007. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
13. Mackay, Jordan. "Straight Shooter". Texas Monthly . No. April 2000. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
14. Martinez, Sarah (4 February 2020). "Lizzo Returning Home to Texas to Play Houston Rodeo Next Month". San Antonio Current . Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
15. Souri, Ranjit (15 June 2006). "Funny Brown Female". India Currents . Archived from the original on 13 August 2006.

External links

• Texas portal
• Schools portal

• Official website
• Alief Elsik High School at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
• Handbook of Alief Schools