Ross Shaw Sterling High School, also known as Sterling Aviation High School, is a secondary school located in Houston, Texas. Sterling, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District. The school was named after Ross S. Sterling. Sterling has Houston ISD's magnet program for Aviation Sciences.
Ross S. Sterling High School opened as a junior/senior high school (grades 7–12) in the fall of 1965.[citation needed]
This unique, three-building campus featured designed-in air-conditioning which was a new, yet essential, feature for HISD facilities. The Sterling campus had a mirror twin sister campus, James Madison Jr./Senior High School, that opened at the same time as Sterling.[citation needed]
The first principal of Sterling was A.P. (Pete) Dowling, an experienced educator and administrator with HISD.[citation needed]
During the 1967 school year, local radio station KILT staged an enormous promotion contest between area high schools. The contest was simple: Each school had to submit as many individual paper entries as possible with the name of the high school on each sheet. The winning school would be the one that submitted the most pounds of paper. The contest created a lot of non-value added time in many classrooms as reams of copy paper and thousands of boxes of computer punch cards were submitted. Ross Sterling was the winner. The primary prize for winning was a school dance sponsored by KILT featuring a regional band named Southwest F.O.B.[citation needed]
Sterling became a senior high school (grades 10–12) exclusively with the 1968–1969 school year. The Blue Raider football team made its first playoff appearance during the 1970 season when it emerged as district champion. The Raiders then defeated Robert E. Lee in bid-district play but were then victims to the Sam Houston High juggernaut in the area round of the playoffs.[citation needed]
Sterling's Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) Detachment was first established on-campus in May 1970. Graduating NJROTC Cadets incur no military service obligation, however many have chosen to serve in every branch of the United States Armed Forces.[3]
During the 1984-1985 school year, the percentages of Fs at 23 of 26 HISD high school campuses decreased in the spring semester because of the state-implemented No Pass No Play rule, which requires students in high school athletic programs to attain passing grades. At Sterling and Barbara Jordan High School for Careers, the percentages of Fs remained the same.[4]
Linda Turner, the president of the Sterling High School PTO, stated that HISD promised to revamp Sterling after the 1998 and the 2007 bond elections passed, but that nothing improved. Her group accused the school of misleading the people by stating that Sterling and Jones High School would both receive new school campuses.[5] After the 2012 bond, the district began indicating that Jones would be consolidated into Sterling.[6]
As of 2010 about half of the HISD students zoned to Sterling did not attend that school.[7]
In 2011 the Class of 1971 was to celebrate its 40th anniversary.[8]
A 2011 report from Magnet Schools of America had recommended closing the Sterling aviation magnet, saying there was a lack of interest. In response, several graduates of the program told HISD that the program was beneficial.[9]
In January 2012 E. Dale Mitchell, who previously served as the principal of Hutto Middle School in Hutto, Texas and worked in the Stafford Municipal School District, became the principal of Sterling.[10]
As of 2013, the school had 900 students, and 1,100 HISD students living in the school's attendance zone opted not to attend Sterling. The school had its third principal in a five-year period. Mitchell stated that there were 61-66 students combined who transferred to Sterling to attend the aviation program or the Futures Academy. Margaret Downing of the Houston Press argued that the figure was not "an impressive number".[5]
Downing wrote that "Whoever erected it, there's a rather sizable wall of distrust between HISD and the Sterling community."[12]
As part of the 2014-2015 rezoning, residents of Southcrest, residents of South Park located east of Martin Luther King Boulevard, and some residents of the East End[13] will be rezoned from Jones High School to Sterling.[14]
In 2015 Mitchell became the principal of Waltrip High School. Justin Fuentes, formerly a high school support officer, became the principal of Sterling.[15]
In the 2015-2016 school year the enrollment was 1,142.[16] Circa 2016 over 57% of high school students living in the Sterling attendance boundary attend other high schools in the school district. In the 2016-2017 school year the school had 450 9th grade students, compared to 300 in the 2015-2016 school year.[17]
In the 2020-2021 school year the enrollment was at 1,642. By that year more students living outside of the Sterling attendance area were choosing to attend the school, while fewer students in the Sterling boundary chose to attend other schools.[16]
Campus
The current campus, which opened in 2016, has 237,000 square feet (22,000m2) of space and had a cost of $72 million. The onsite hangar has 7,100 square feet (660m2) of space.[18] The three-story building was scheduled to have a capacity of 1,600–1,800 students.[19]
Demographics
As of 2013, according to Mitchell, about 40% of Sterling graduates will go directly to the workforce and the remainder would go to the military and/or to universities and colleges. Mitchell stated that "For a large number of people this is their college experience" citing that large number of Sterling students, dating to the 1960s, never went to colleges or universities after graduation.[12] He stated that this is why some alumni of Sterling have a strong passion for the school.[12]
In the 2022-2023 school year, approximately 92% of the students were classified as being from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.[16] The racial demographics consisted of:
Sterling is the home of HISD's high school aviation magnet program; students must take Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved-based courses before being eligible to take up to 30 hours of flight time. Students may then take the FAA written examination. As of 2001 Lentz Enterprises and Raiders Tiger Flying Club provides flight instruction to Sterling students; it had done so since circa 1999, and the HISD board of education renewed the club's contract in 2001. In 2000 the magnet program had 200 students.[20] As of 2011 the annual magnet program funding was $46,363.[9]
Culture
Mitchell stated that the student body enjoys Homecoming since "It's like Mardi Gras for a week long."[12]
The school is composed of Hispanic, Latino, and African American Students. The students all actively participate during Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, and Cinco De Mayo. With parties, festivals, fashion shows, committee pot lucks, and much more.[citation needed]
Neighborhoods served by Sterling
Houston neighborhoods served by Sterling[21] include Autumn Glen , South Park, Crestmont Park, Garden Villas, Wayside, Sterling Lakes , King Estates, Edgewood, El Tesoro , Panay Park , Houston Skyscraper Shadows, Gulf Meadows, Airport Gardens, a portion of South Acres, a portion of South Acres Estates, a portion of Minnetex Place, Mykawa, and a portion of Santa Rosa.
The Texas Education Agency specified that the parents and/or guardians of students zoned to a school with uniforms may apply for a waiver to opt out of the uniform policy so their children do not have to wear the uniform;[25] parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.
Feeder patterns
Elementary schools that feed into Sterling include:[21]
Stephen F. Austin High School is a secondary school located at 1700 Dumble Street in Houston, Texas, United States. The school handles grades nine through twelve and is a part of the Houston Independent School District. In 2013, the school was rated "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency.
John J. Pershing Middle School is a middle school in Houston, Texas, United States. It is located in the Braeswood Place neighborhood, near the Texas Medical Center.
Jack Yates Senior High School is a public high school located at 3650 Alabama Street, very near Texas Southern University, in the historic Third Ward in Houston, Texas. Yates High School handles grades nine through twelve and is part of the Houston Independent School District (HISD).
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Sharpstown High School is a secondary school at 7504 Bissonnet Street in Greater Sharpstown, Houston, Texas, United States with a zip code of 77074. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is a part of the Houston Independent School District.
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Jones Futures Academy, previously Jesse H. Jones High School, is a public high school in South Park, Houston, Texas, United States. It has Dual Credit Magnet Program with emphasis in Health Sciences and Petroleum Engineering. Students who maintain the course of the entire program would graduate high school in May/June of their Sr. year and will have the ability to receive an associate degree in August following their graduation in one of their offered degree programs. Jones, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District. Jones was named after Jesse Holman Jones.
Edgar Gregory-Abraham Lincoln Education Center (GLEC) is a K-8 school located at 1101 Taft in the Fourth Ward area of Houston, Texas, United States. Gregory-Lincoln is a part of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and has a fine arts magnet program that takes students in both the elementary and middle school levels. Originally built in 1966 as Lincoln Junior and Senior High School, it later operated as Lincoln Junior High School until Gregory Elementary School merged into it in 1980, forming Gregory-Lincoln. The school moved into its current building in 2008; the rebuilding was delayed due to concerns that U.S. Civil War-era graveyards would be disturbed by the rebuilding process.
Evan Edward Worthing Early College High School is a secondary school located in the Sunnyside area of Houston, Texas, United States.
Ebbert L. Furr High School is a secondary school located in Houston, Texas, United States. Furr, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District.
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James D. Ryan Middle School was a secondary school located in Houston, Texas, United States. The Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan, a magnet middle school, now occupies the campus.
Francis Scott Key Middle School is a public middle school in the Kashmere Gardens area of Houston, Texas, United States. It is within the Houston Independent School District.
North Forest High School (NFHS) is a secondary school located in Houston, Texas, United States. The school is a part of the Houston Independent School District (HISD); it was a part of the North Forest Independent School District (NFISD) until the district closed on July 1, 2013.
Jane Long Academy, formerly Jane Long Middle School, is a public grade 6-12 middle and high school in Sharpstown, Houston, Texas. It is a part of the Houston Independent School District. Long, in Sharpstown Section 1, serves portions of Sharpstown, Gulfton, and Shenandoah for middle school. Jane Long serves Sharpstown original sections 1, 1A, and 2. The campus has a grade 6-8 neighborhood program together with a 9-12 Futures Academy, a non-zoned high school program that offers an associate degree track. Las Américas Newcomer School, a school for new immigrants, is on the Long campus.
1 2 3 4 Downing, Margaret. "Sterling High School: Keeping It All Together." Houston Press. Wednesday May 8, 2013. p. 3. Retrieved on February 23, 2014.
This list is incomplete. This list only includes schools in the Houston city limits. Multiple schools with "Houston, Texas" addresses are not in the city limits.
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