Hurricane Harvey damage and new construction
In 2017, the site of the original Henderson Junior High School was damaged by flooding from Hurricane Harvey, with the storm causing $30,000,000 in damages. From the 2017-2018 to the 2024-2024 school years, middle school students were educated in portable buildings. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers awarded the district nearly $28,000,000 of federal grants as part of a cost-sharing agreement in 2020 to replace Henderson Middle School. The school district passed two bonds in 2021 to use the funds to build a new Henderson Middle School, field house, and auditorium. [3] Construction began the same year. [4]
Renaming controversy
In March 2023, the school board of trustees, wholly composed of white members, voted to rename the new middle school Hardin-Jefferson Junior High to "align the name" of the middle school to other schools in the district after approximately 60 years of the school being named in honor of former principal J.H. Henderson. The decision to rename was met with disapproval from some members of the surrounding communities, accusing the district of wiping the name of J.H. Henderson, as principal of the then-Black school China High School which was later repurposed as a desegregated middle school 1960s. Henderson had been "the only Black high school principal to survive integration in China" and was praised as an educational pioneer of both the White and Black communities within the district, having served 29 years as a teacher. [5] [4] Previously, more schools in the district had long been named in Henderson's honor. The board reassured that they were seeking alternative ways to honor Henderson and past employees' legacies [4] and adopted a new policy for the renaming of facilities that "could provide for community input to be presented to the board", which was met with additional criticism, with allegations of a more sinister reason being behind the changes, and questioning why no elementary schools were renamed. [6] The policy set requirements deceased persons had to meet in order to have a school named in their honor and an extensive community review process. [7]
In November 2023, two motions were made: one to rename China Elementary to James H. Henderson Elementary, and a subsequent motion to change the name to China-Henderson Elementary as a compromise. Both failed on a 3-3 vote from the school board. [8]
