Spruce HS gets thumbs down

[3afan]

Reorganization of Spuce approved

12:47 AM CDT on Friday, June 27, 2008

By DAMON L. SAYLES / The Dallas Morning News
dsayles@dallasnews.com

At 5:37 p.m. Thursday, Dallas ISD's much-anticipated board meeting was called to order. More than four hours later, the decision Spruce supporters dreaded became reality.

The DISD board of trustees voted, 6-3, to approve and execute the option of reorganizing Spruce for the 2008-09 school year. The move will reassign incoming sophomores and juniors to Madison and Lincoln high schools.

In addition, Spruce will be forced to drop varsity athletics for the upcoming calendar year. Incoming seniors will have the option of transferring to another school in the district.

Spruce athletic coordinator Melvin Lark, after watching the athletic program excel during the 2007-08 calendar year, called the decision "completely and utterly devastating."

"It's kind of like a balloon that you've blown up and then let all the air out," Lark said. "Interest and participation were at an all-time high.

"You can never prepare for anything like this."

Board trustees made the decision after noting Spruce's academic numbers were consistently low in math and science in the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills _ the standardized test used in Texas schools.

District officials expect Spruce to make the state's "academically unacceptable" list for the fourth consecutive year.

That list, organized by the Texas Education Agency, will be released later this summer.

"If we don't take drastic action today, there will be no Spruce next year," DISD superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa said. "We are at desperate times."

Spruce's varsity football, boys and girls basketball teams made the playoffs during the 2007-08 season. Athletes also excelled in track and field.

"It's just unfortunate," DISD athletic director Jeff Johnson said. "If you look at the teams there, Spruce has got some good athletes coming back, in football and basketball in particular. It's heartbreaking for them."

Daniel Mayberry and Donovan Bonner, who are entering their senior years, already have orally committed to play college football in 2009. Lark said several others on the team were Division I-caliber athletes.

"It's hard to fit somewhere else when you've been at a place for so long," said Mayberry, who committed to North Texas. "You build chemistry at a school, and now you've got to start over? It's frustrating, and it's hard."

Mayberry added that some athletes who have been teammates since elementary school now will be opponents for the first time this season.

"We all will have to choose what's best for us," Mayberry said, "But I know this: None of us want to leave Spruce."

[Phil C]

Ricidivism at its' worse. :(

[WOS87]

So we have Johnston dropping varsity football in Austin

Smiley and Forest Brook merging from 2 down to 1 varsity football program in Houston

Spruce dropping their varsity football program in Dallas

Anyone know of any San Antonio schools looking at the same??

That appears to be the only major metro area in the state that hasn't had it happen this year

[WOS87]

Also, won't that possibly move Madison up from 3A to 4A??

[3afan]

Originally posted by Phil C
Ricidivism

LINK (http://dictionary.reference.com/)

[3afan]

Originally posted by WOS87
So we have Johnston dropping varsity football in Austin

Smiley and Forest Brook merging from 2 down to 1 varsity football program in Houston

Spruce dropping their varsity football program in Dallas

Anyone know of any San Antonio schools looking at the same??

That appears to be the only major metro area in the state that hasn't had it happen this year

SAISD has opened 5-6 new high schools the past 5 or so years

[Necks_Fan]

They should teach to the TAKS test just like the rest of Texas schools.:rolleyes:

[trojan37]

Originally posted by WOS87
Also, won't that possibly move Madison up from 3A to 4A??

I was curious about that as well. I thought with realignment being done, they couldn't change it this year, but I don't know how that works. If they stay 3A this year, I might have to change my top 25 poll.:D

[WOS87]

Originally posted by trojan37
I was curious about that as well. I thought with realignment being done, they couldn't change it this year, but I don't know how that works. If they stay 3A this year, I might have to change my top 25 poll.:D

The UIL would definitely change them, as they came within 10-20 students of moving the Smiley/Forest Brook merger up from 4A to 5A.

Spruce has an enrollment of 1831 so the incoming sophomore and junior classes would equal to about 915. If you send half of those to Madison (with an enrollment of 523: 523 + 457=980) that pushes them up to 980, which would put them right at the cutoff between 3A and 4A (which is also 980).

And since most 9th and 10th grade classes are usually significantly larger than the 11th and 12th grade classes (due to high dropout rates) the incoming 10th and 11th grade classes are likely to equal more than 50% of the total enrollment.

[JR2004]

Originally posted by WOS87
Also, won't that possibly move Madison up from 3A to 4A??

No it won't. I'll be shocked if more than 300 kids show up from Spruce and most of the athletes are already on their way to Lincoln. Most of the kids that are forced to choose between Madison and Lincoln will choose Lincoln. Most kids just don't want to attend Madison. Part of it is still having a stigma attached to the school and some of it is kids aren't going to want to wear a uniform like they would have to do at Madison. I would imagine a good portion of the kids will just leave the district altogether and head elsewhere.

It's only a temporary bump up in enrollment for Madison. Madison won't receive a permanent upswing in enrollment until they open up the fire and police academy at the school. Some of our administrators and coaches went down to LBJ high school in the spring to see how they run their academy. Madison won't open one up for at least another year or two. Even with that the enrollment will still be in the 800-850 range.

[TarponFanInNorthTexas]

Don't be too surprised if something like this begins to happen down in Brownsville.

If I recall correctly, 4 out of their 5 high schools have been "academically unacceptable" for about 3 years in a row now. Some students from Brownsville have already transferred to nearby Los Fresnos, and a few to Port Isabel.

[Phil C]

Both Los Fresnos and Port Isabel are close to South Padre Island, Texas. In fact Brownsville itself is fairly close. You can hear the great Pelican West band at their place at South Padre Island, Texas. It is located just south of the Radisson Hotel.

[18handicap]

Originally posted by 3afan
SAISD has opened 5-6 new high schools the past 5 or so years

SAISD hasn't opened any new high schools in several years, but Northeast ISD, Northside ISD, Judson ISD, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD have opened that number of schools.

Don't forget that Houston ISD has had to do a reorganization at Sam Houston HS. One of the HISD softball coaches told me that they aren't sure yet if the new school will have athletics or not.

[NastySlot]

Originally posted by 3afan
SAISD has opened 5-6 new high schools the past 5 or so years

no SAISD hasn't...the schools in the area that opened up have been in the Northside ISD ( Warren, Stevens and Brandis next year) and Northeast ISD (Reagan and Johnson next year) Northside I believe will open another within the next three years.

The San Antonio ISD only has Brackenridge, Edison, Lainer, Fox Tech, Jefferson, Sam Houston and Burbank which are all 4A schools and Highlands which is the districts lone 5A.......other area districts included the Harlandale ISD with Harlandale and McCollum, South San...with South San H.S....West Campus closed and merged with South San, East Central..with ECHS, Southwest ISD with SW H.S. and then there is Edgewood ISD (famous for Robin Hood) which has two high schools Kennedy and Memorial......Memorial would probably be considered the areas Johnston or Spruce. Southside ISD is located on the far southern end of the metro area.

Northside includes: Marshall, Jay, Holmes, Clark, Taft and O'Connor along with the schools mentioned above.

Northeast includes: MacArthur, Lee, Churchill, Roosevelt, Madison with the one also mentioned above.

Then you have the military base schools....Cole which draws from mainly from Fort Sam Houston and some from Camp Bullis. Randolph which draws from Randolph AF Base and then there is Stacey which draws from Lackland.


As mentioned Edgewood's Memorial is the school in the poorest shape....many kids in that area end up at Northside Schools and some SAISD schools cause of the poor performances in academics and athletics.

[NastySlot]

18 is right two more schools opened in the SCUCISD...Steele and Judson ISD Wagner.