Humble ISD Votes To Merge Two High Schools For 2017-18 School Year

HUMBLE, TX — The Humble ISD Board of Trustees approved a plan during an emergency meeting Tuesday that will shift the entire Kingwood High School student body to the Summer Creek high School campus this year.

Trustees voted unanimously to move the more than 2,700 students from Kingwood High School for the 2017-2018 school year and introduced a schedule to accomodate both student bodies. (Want to get daily news updates and other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Humble-Kingwood Patch morning newsletter.)

“This is a very unprecedented situation that we’ve all moved through together,” said Humble ISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen, who thanked those in Humble ISD who helped with evacuating families and saving lives during Hurricane Harvey. “What you’ve done has been a model for the kind of collaboration, services and support of a community during the most difficult time”

Kingwood and Humble were among the hardest hit communities in the Greater Houston area, when Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm began a 4-day bombardment of near non-stop rain, resulting in flooding along dams, creeks and rivers that eventually flooded homes and businesses.

RELATED: Kingwood High School Closed For 2017-18 School Year

Kingwood High School sustained significant damage with as much as four feet of standing water in some areas of the school.

In the days that followed, Humble ISD conducted a survey among residents to determine attendances and bell schedules for Summer Creek and Kingwood students.

The plan, which was described as fluid, provides for Summer Creek students to attend classes five days a week from 7 a.m. until 11:19 a.m., and Kingwood students to attend five days a week from 12:11 p.m. until 4:20 p.m.

Humble ISD has published the proposed bell schedule for both schools.

Trey Kraemer, Humble ISD Assistant Superintendent said the district considered several options to keep the students on the Kingwood High School campus,including bringing in as many as 50 portable buildings to house the students while the repairs were going on, but that process would have taken months, he said.

“This didn’t include the cafeteria restrooms, speciality issues...We had safety issues galore on that campus,” Kraemer said. “We ultimately decided that no one should be on that campus during the remediation process.”

Kraemer said in the end, the district couldn’t find a way to keep the students in Kingwood, and leaving the shift to Summer Creek — the least crowded high school campus in Humble ISD — as the only viable option.

Parents spoke up after the presentation, and while all were appreciative of the efforts of Humble ISD administrators during Hurricane Harvey, the plan to mingle the two student bodies met with mixed reviews.

Paul Lesser, who has children who attend Summer Creek High School, called the school district plan “seriously flawed.”

“It doesn’t properly address the educational needs of the students, of those two schools,” Lesser said. “I commend the board for trying to keep the Kingwood High School community together, but the plan they’ve come up with imposes too a high a price on our students.”

Lesser requested that the board try and come up with a better plan that does not reduce classroom instruction time.

Kingwood High School Families are invited to an Open House from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, at Summer Creek High School, 14000 Weckford Boulevard. Come see the campus.

Underwater: Businesses in Humble, Texas are surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, in Humble, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Send your news tips to bryan.kirk@patch.com