Jane Long Academy

Long Middle School

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 serves portions of Sharpstown, Gulfton, and Shenandoah.^[1] Jane Long serves Sharpstown original sections 1, 1A, and 2.^[2] The campus has a grade 6-8 neighborhood program and also houses Futures Academy, a non-zoned high school program. Las Américas Newcomer School, a school for new immigrants, is on the Long campus.

History

The school, named after Jane Wilkinson Long, opened in 1957.^[3]

Around the early 1990s portions of the City of Bellaire west of the 610 Loop were zoned to Jane Long Middle,^[4] while portions inside the 610 Loop were zoned to Pershing Middle School.^[5] After its formation, the Bellaire Area School Improvement Committee (BASIC) installed a gifted and talented magnet at Jane Long. A 32% tax increase championed by HISD superintendent Frank Petruzielo funded the new magnet program which opened in August 1992.^[4] The new principal started work that month. Donald R. McAdams, a former HISD school board member and author of Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools-- and Winning!: Lessons from Houston, wrote that the magnet program was "successful" and that the new principal was "extraordinary."^[4] McAdams stated that "In a few years Long showed dramatic improvement in appearance, discipline, and test scores."^[4]

McAdams described as a school that was "unacceptable" to non-Hispanic White Bellaire residents since it was less than 10% white.^[4] McAdams added that even with the new program, to many parents in Bellaire, Long was "never going to be acceptable" due to the overwhelming Hispanic presence.^[4] McAdams recalled that one parent told him "I don't care how good the gifted program becomes. I don't care what you do to Jane Long, I will never place my daughter there with all those Hispanic boys."^[4]

In October 2006, Michael Marquez, president of the Hispanic Housing and Education Corporation, which operated the Las Américas apartments, announced to HISD in a letter that the organization would terminate the lease agreement between HISD and the apartment complex because of issues related to maintenance and management, affecting the HISD schools housed there. The district decided to vacate the property instead of appealing the decision.^[6] In summer 2007, the former Las Américas Education Center closed.^[7][8][9] The middle schools that were in the complex, Las Américas Middle School and Kaleidoscope Middle School, moved to the Long Middle School campus.^[10][11][12]

As of 2010 Long had 700 students. The building capacity is for 1,790 students. Diana de la Rosa, the principal, stated that area charter schools are attracting students who would otherwise attend Long. In the 2010-2011 school year the school had 244 sixth graders when it had been expecting 200. De La Rosa credited the institution of an after-school program jointly operated by Citizen Schools, the addition of monthly parenting workshops, and the extension of the school hours of Long Middle.^[13]

By 2011 Long Middle School had increased the school day for sixth grade students by three hours as part of its partnership with Citizen Schools. For that reason, in 2011 Jane Long was selected as one of four schools to participate in the Partners in Learning program.^[14]

In 2014 the district scheduled the elimination of the Long Vanguard program for the 2015-2016 school year.^[15]

Programs

As of 2010 the school has a Peer Mediator Program which teaches students how to peacefully resolve conflicts.^[16]

School uniforms

The school requires its students to wear school uniforms. As of 2013-2014 students are required to wear polo shirts of different colors depending on grade level, and blue denim pants or navy skirts.^[17]

The school first adopted school uniforms, called "standard mode of dress", in 1994. Robert Farquharson, the principal, stated that parents requested uniforms since many came from countries were students normally wore school uniforms.^[18] Farquharson stated that in order to ensure all students will buy the specific uniform style, regardless of finances, the school did not require a specific uniform provider.^[18] According to Farquharson the faculty members were in favor of uniforms, the parents were "ecstatic", and the students had "more mixed" viewpoints on the uniforms, "but I would expect that from adolescents."^[18] The principal added that "We are trying to find ways to make kids want to do things that will keep them in a mode of fashion that is not going to get them into trouble. If we are going to have a gang, we are going to have the Jane Long gang."^[18] At the time the dress required white shirts with sleeves, with plain White T-shirts being acceptable, and blue trousers or shirts, with blue jeans being acceptable.^[18]

Feeder patterns

Elementary schools feeding into Long's zoned middle school program include:

• Benavidez^[19]
• Braeburn^[20]
• Cunningham^[21]
• Rodriguez^[22]
• Sutton^[23]

Elementary schools partially feeding into the Long zoned middle school include:

• Herod^[24]

All residents zoned to Jane Long may attend Pin Oak Middle School in Bellaire as an option.^[25]

Portions of the Long middle school attendance boundary coincide with that of Bellaire High School, Margaret Long Wisdom High School (formerly Robert E. Lee High School), and Sharpstown High School.^{[26][27][28][29]} Students within the Margaret Long Wisdom zone have the option to attend Lamar or Westside high schools.^[30]

References

• McAdams, Donald R. Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools-- and Winning!: Lessons from Houston. Teachers College Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-8077-7035-1, 9780807770351.

Notes

External links

• Jane Long Middle School

Coordinates: 29°42′18″N 95°29′53″W / 29.705°N 95.498°W / 29.705; -95.498