John H. Reagan High School

John H. Reagan High School is a high school in Houston, Texas, United States.

Reagan, which enrolls students in grades nine through twelve, is a part of the Houston Independent School District. Reagan is located in the Houston Heights neighborhood. Reagan, which was named after John H. Reagan, has HISD's computer magnet program.

The school gymnasium is the home court of the Houston Takers, a professional men's basketball team in the American Basketball Association.

As of 2008, the principal of Reagan High School is Connie Berger.^[1]

History

Reagan High School

Reagan was first established in 1904 as Houston Heights High School.^[2]

Houston Heights tied with Cleburne High School, 0-0, in the 1920 state championship football game, and was declared a co-champion with Cleburne.^[3] This is the first state football championship game recognized by Dave Campbell's Texas Football.

The Houston Heights High School, as it is known today, opened in 1919. In 1925 the campus was renamed Alexander Hamilton High School. Reagan opened in 1926 and Hamilton became a junior high school.^[4] The campus was designed by John Staub and William Ward Watkin, who were designers of the original campus of Rice University. Reagan was first established as an all-white high school. Reagan was relieved by Waltrip High School when Waltrip opened in 1959.^[5]

Reagan was desegregated by 1970 and its student body started to become increasingly Hispanic; by 1988 Reagan was mostly Hispanic.^[6]

In 2006 Reagan began to a renovation. Set to end in the summer of 2007, the renovations to Reagan included the building of a new cafeteria, a new gymnasium complex, an additional academic building, a new vocational building, and a library.^[4]

A 2007 Johns Hopkins University study cited Reagan and 41 other Houston area high schools as "dropout factories." This classification was based on the fact that at least 40% of the entering freshman class did not make it to their senior year for the 2006 graduation class.^[7]

In 2009 Connie Berger, principal of Reagan High School, expected around 100 former private school students to enroll because the economic conditions persuaded families to send their children to public school instead of private school.^[8]

Notable alumni

• Red Adair, notable oil well firefighter who extinguished the "The Devil's Cigarette Lighter")^[9]
• Tommy Castro, Corporal, USMCR, wounded at Chosin 1950; received the Purple Heart.
• A. J. Foyt, Sr., father of A. J. Foyt, Jr.^[9]
• Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics^[9]
• Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, criminal defense attorney^[9]
• Larry Hovis, actor^[9]
• Harold Icett Jr, Corporal, USMCR, KIA 1951, Korea; received the Silver Star for gallantry.
• Raymond Knight, U.S. Army Air Corps^[9]
• Everett Augustus "Squatty" Lyons, retired Harris County Commissioner for Precinct 4^[9]
• Patrick Lyons, Corporal, USMCR, KIA 1951, Korea
• Dan Rather, journalist^[9]
• Craig Reynolds, professional baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, and Houston Astros^[9]
• Martha Wong, former Texas state representative^[9]
• Gwendolyn Zepeda, author^[9]

Demographics

As of the 2006-2007 school year, Reagan High School had an enrollment of 1,707 students. Racial breakdown was as follows:

• 88%—Hispanic American
• 7%—African-American
• 4%—White
• 1%—Asian American
• 0%—Native Americans

73% of students qualified for free or reduced lunch.^[10]

Neighborhoods served by Reagan

Reagan takes students from most of the Houston Heights neighborhood, ^[11] a portion of Downtown Houston, the Fourth Ward, East Norhill, Woodland Heights, Brooksmith, Magnolia Grove^[12], Stude, Proctor Plaza [1], the Old Sixth Ward, and a small portion of Midtown. Other parts of Houston northwest of downtown within the 610 Loop are zoned to Reagan as well. Originally, all of the Houston Heights was zoned to Reagan. In 1997, a small portion was rezoned to Waltrip.^[13]

Feeder patterns

Middle schools feeding into Reagan include Gregory-Lincoln Education Center^[14], Alexander Hamilton^[15], Hogg^[16], and E. O. Smith Education Center^[17].

Elementary schools that feed indirectly into Reagan^[11] through the above middle schools include Browning^[18] Field^[19] Harvard^[20] (partial) Crockett^[21] Gregory-Lincoln Education Center^[22] Helms^[23] Jefferson^[24] Ketelsen^[25] Love^[26] Memorial^[27], and Travis^[28].

School uniforms

As of 2006, Reagan students are required to wear school uniforms.^[29] Uniforms consist of white and maroon polo shirts with Reagan logos and black, khaki, or navy trousers.

The Texas Education Agency specifies 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; parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.^[30]

References

External links

• Reagan High School