Lee High School (Houston)
Encyclopedia
Lee High School, formerly Robert E. Lee High School, is a publicly funded secondary school located in Southwest Houston
, Texas
, United States
77057. The Houston Independent School District
, the 7th largest school district in the United States, operates Lee, a public admission school that enrolls grades 9 through 12 ( ages 14–19 ). The school serves the Gulfton neighborhood of Houston and other communities within the city.
and opened in 1962 to relieve high attendance at Lamar
and Bellaire high schools. At that time, Lee High School had a white and mostly affluent and suburban student body. For its first twenty five years, Lee High School had an predominantly white, affluent, college bound suburban student body, gathered primarily from the Afton Oaks, Tanglewood, Briargrove, Briarcroft/Briarmeadow and Rivercrest/Briargrove Park neighborhoods, south of Buffalo Bayou. It has been home to multiple award winning students, faculty, programs, athletic teams and graduates over its history. The school's motto is "Fortune Favors the Brave", taken from the Lee family and based on the Roman philosopher Virgil's quote.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy
's Robert E. Lee chapter number 186 supported the school in its early years; it donated portraits of Lee, gave American Civil War
-related books to the library, and gave the school a rebel flag. The school's symbol is the Lee family coat of arms, which has a squirrel on the top holding a nut.
The Lee campus was the subject of a 1974 "60 Minutes" story on drug culture in American High Schools. It was expanded significantly by HISD to address overcrowding two times in its first 25 years; first in 1967, and again in 1987.
As times changed, the demographic of Lee's student body shifted. As of 2008, it was made up predominantly of Hispanic immigrants and sons and daughters of Hispanic immigrants. Lee's multi-ethnic population changes parallel Houston's immigration waves, beginning with the Vietnamese families in the early 1980s. With the change in apartment housing rules in the 1980s, both the community and the school population changed. The demographic of Lee's student body shifted significantly in the 1990s, as student's from the south zone (Gulfton area) who are a majority Mexican and Central American immigrants and/or sons and daughters of Hispanic immigrants became the overwhelming majority of the student body. Lee became one of the largest 5A high schools in the region by the late 1990s.
Lee's student body was relieved of about 1,000 students when Westside High School
, about 7 miles (11.3 km) west of Lee, opened in 2000, removing the last significant numbers of middle-class students and non-Hispanic White
students. When Westside opened, residents of the Lee attendance boundary gained the option to attend Westside instead of Lee.
Around 2000 the school stopped using the "Robert E." part of the same, and its logo became that of a four-point, star-bodied person. Steve Amstutz, the principal, said around that year "People think we stole it from Cingular." The school removed its portraits of Robert E. Lee. The star in the logo juggles ten balls, representing ten learning communities established around that year to provide personalized education to students. The establishment of the learning communities was part of a $68 million HISD initiative to personalize and improve high schools throughout the district; this reflected a national trend of personalizing education in high schools.
Newcomer Charter High School (as of 2007, known as Liberty High School), was opened in January 2005, and housed in Lee High School until summer 2007, when the new campus at 6400 Southwest Freeway (U.S. Highway 59) opened.
According to the Houston Independent School District October 2006 "For Your Information" newsletter, Lee was one of four high schools that took the most refugees from Hurricane Katrina
.
In 2007, a study by Johns Hopkins University
and the Associated Press referred to Lee among American high schools designated as "dropout factories", where at least 40% of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.
YES Prep Lee, a charter
middle school, was located inside the Lee High School campus; the school planned to expand to a six through 12 campus with 30 classrooms. In the summer of 2007 the school was established on the third floor of Lee High School. YES paid $65,000 annually to lease the space. YES intended to grow its school to around 700 students. YES and charter officials wanted state officials to pass a bill allowing schools occupying the same campus to share test scores; the bill failed.
In 2008 Bill Gates
and Melinda Gates
visited Lee and the YES Prep school inside Lee.
In December, 2009, YES Prep moved all of the around 400 students in the Lee program off of the Lee campus. In January 2010 the board of YES Prep voted to terminate its partnership with Lee High School. YES Prep Lee, now YES Prep Gulfton, is no longer located inside Lee High School.
In 2010, Amstutz stopped being the principal of Lee. HISD did not state whether his departure was voluntary or involuntary. Amstutz continued to be an employee of HISD. Paul Castro from Westside High School
was transferred to become the new principal of Lee High School. He resigned after three months. In April 2010 Terry Grier, the superintendent, announced that he had an improvement plan for Lee. Xochitl Rodriguez-Davila was promoted from HISD's Stonewall Jackson Middle School leader to become Robert E. Lee's 14th principal in July, 2010.
During that summer Newsweek
ranked Lee HS among the "America's Best High Schools" list.
." As of 2010, one of the brick façades outside one of the entrances had bricks missing. Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston Chronicle
said that it was "left to gape like a toothless mouth for the past eight years." After Xochitl Rodriguez-Davila was hired as the Lee principal, she arranged a campus facelift.
During that year, HISD reported that two distinct portions of the 49 year old main school building's foundation are sinking into the ground at different rates.
The ethnic diversity break down of the 2010-11 student body is:
In 2010-11, Lee qualifies as a US Department of Education Title I campus: thus, 97% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced breakfast and lunch under federal poverty guidelines.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Lee's student body consisted of affluent White American
s. Principal Steve Amstutz stated in 2003 that Lee's student body was "a sea of white faces. They all looked like me." As the school matured, the demographics of the students changed. By the 1999 Lee was very overcrowded, so many students had to use air conditioning units as chairs. Around that time period, half of a given 9th grade class would no longer be present in the class once it became a 12th grade class. Around 1999, students fought in the hallways daily. The opening of Westside High School
in 2000 removed the last significant numbers of White and upper income students, causing the school to refocus itself to cater to its new population.
In a 2003 article by the Houston Press
, Amstutz stated, referring to the "Hispanic" designation, "But that covers from Nuevo Laredo
to Tierra del Fuego
. We're from the top of Mexico
to the south of Argentina
. And I've got kids from everywhere in between." Amstutz said in a 2002 article that "Sometimes I can lose a whole country in a day, other times I can gain one." Lisa Falkenberg said in 2010 that Lee was a school "Where being Rwandan isn't 'weird'".
In 2010 Harvin Moore, Lee's HISD school board trustee, said "There is no high school in Houston that has a more unique and difficult challenge with respect to a significant portion of the children who attend there," citing the concentration of older, immigrant students who come from third world
countries and often lack basic education.
As of 2010 over 40 languages were spoken by the Lee High School student body, and the number of English language learners, over 700, was higher than the populations of some other peer high schools in the area.
.
Students wear the school's two colors from Monday through Thursday:
Students have the option of wearing a university/college t-shirt or a Lee HS club shirt (only) on Fridays.
Additionally, At the end of each month, seniors can opt to dress professionally on a designated day.
Some teachers who worked at Lee after the student population became mostly Hispanic recalled that some members of gangs
who were enrolled at Lee openly wore gang colors and other gang insignia while on campus.
said of Lee: "Lee High School isn't your typical failing school. In one campus, its students seem to personify every major socio-economic problem and demographic challenge facing urban schools today. At the same time, it's a petri dish for academic innovation, full of Stand and Deliver
-type successes." During that year she also said "The school is flailing in a test-driven accountability system blind to extenuating circumstances like poverty, pregnancy, 30 percent student turnover, and 780 students out of 1,850 considered “English language learners.”"
Lee High School U.S. Army(JROTC) program has re-emerged as a force, improving from 24th to 7th place, out of the 25 HISD Army based student programs. Successful, statewide award winning distributive teaching programs in Metal-fabrication and Woodworking have been built in recent years, as well.
In 2010, Lee had improved its state mandated TAKS test scores significantly, yet was named academically "unacceptable" by the TEA, due to its 30% dropout rate. As a result of 3+ years of this designation, it became one of the HISD "Apollo 20" laboratory schools. It was subject to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) "turnaround" model for reforming schools in jeopardy of closing, including replacing the administration and much of the existing faculty. As of 2010 the think tank "Children at Risk" ranked Lee as one of the most improved high schools in Greater Houston.
When Lee began as a high school, all of its foreign language activities occurred in the "Language Lab" area.
article stated that the student body took approximately 550 AP tests; eight times the number taken in 2004. In June, 2010, Newsweek
magazine ranked Lee #151 out of over 16,000 schools nationwide, acknowledging it among "America's Best High Schools" for its number of students taking AP tests. Jason Spencer of the Houston Chronicle
called the ranking a "head scratcher," since prior to the announcement of the ranking the HISD administration had forced 160 teachers at Lee and other schools to leave due to low performance. Thompson explained that the ranking system, which divides all of the AP exams taken by the total number of students, is "freakishly simplistic" since it does not take into account performance during the AP exams. The ranking done by the think tank "Children at Risk" that year placed Lee in number 133 out of 140 high schools. Responding to the Newsweek ranking, HISD superintendent Terry Grier said "The efforts at Lee High School to encourage more students to take college-level courses are to be commended. We must raise the level of achievement for all students, and it is for this reason that we will be initiating the Apollo 20 project at Lee in the next school year. We will continue to build on the work you and your colleagues have done so that we can ensure that every child in our school district receives a quality education that will prepare him or her for college and career success."
There are a number of advanced, college prep Advanced Placement courses taught at Lee, including:
AP World History
AP U.S. History
AP U.S. Government & Politics
AP Macroeconomics
AP English Language
AP English Literature
AP Calculus AB
AP Calculus BC
AP Statistics
AP Studio Art
AP Spanish Language
AP Spanish Literature
AP French Language
AP Biology
AP Environmental Science
AP Physics B
In May 2010, 300 students signed up to take approximately 800 AP tests, with increases in exemplary scores in AP US Government, AP Macroeconomics, and AP Calculus across the board.
The school is divided into 4 academies, paralleling grades 9-12, each managed by an assistant principal. There is an additional academy for non-English speaking students and 9th graders in need of ESL or additional math or English tutoring.
Some of these include:
In 2010 Lee no longer offered band and orchestra.
From 1962-2000, Lee had student service organizations, including Pilot Club for Women's Anchor Club, Galleria Area Rotary Club's "Interact," and Kiwanis Club's Key Club
. Marla Morrow, a former student quoted in Education Week
, said that prospective members of the Key Club were required to reproduce the financial statement
s of their parents. As of 2011, Galleria Rotary Club is working with both Robert E. Lee and Lamar High Schools to re-organize and sponsor Interact student service clubs at each campus.
Robert E. Lee Varsity sports teams include:
team often appeared in high school playoffs. Many famous football players and coaches were involved in the program. Of the seven most recent inductees to the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame as of August 24, 2010, two were involved with Lee High School. Joe Clemens, a famous football coach, coached at Lee in the 1960s. Peter Gardere
, a former University of Texas at Austin
quarterback, played for Lee in the 1980s. The significance of American football at Lee decreased when the student demographics changed.
The opening of Westside High School
, which decreased the number of students at Lee from 3,100 to 2,100, drained most of the American football players from the school and the school did not have enough children who were interested in playing American football. In 2003 the school dropped American football
from its sports program; This is likely because American football is not a popular sport in the home countries of its largely Hispanic student body. Steve Amstutz, the principal, said that he did not receive complaints after the team was cut. After 2003 soccer (football) became the main sport at Lee High School. Soccer is played at Lee's homecoming games instead of football. In 2010, some alumni visiting the school expressed shock when they found out that football was not a sport at Lee. Around 1995,the principal at Lee had virtually all of its athletic and academic trophies thrown out, leaving the cases empty.
In February 2010 the school administration decided to re-establish American football as a school sport. As of May 2010 plans to re-establish American football were ongoing. The school administration assembled the football team from scratch. As of August 2010 the players originated from countries in Africa
, Canada
, Guatemala
, Mexico
, and other countries. The team had some Muslim
players. In 2010, the R.E. Lee Alumni Association worked with the school and district, and established a partnership with the Houston Texans Football Team, to help re-establish a permanent football program. In accordance with UIL rules, LEE will field a JV football squad for 2010 and 2011, returning to 21-4A Varsity District play in Fall, 2012.
The Lee High School girls' golf team existed in the 1970s. When the demographics of the school shifted, the golf team ended. Around the time that American football was cut, the school revived its boys' and girls' golf teams. As of 2003 six boys and four girls played golf for Lee; one of the ten was a White American
. Steve Amstutz, the principal, explained that Lee founded the team to teach students how to learn to commit to a goal and to give them an activity that would keep them involved and attending school.
As of 2003 the Lee golf team had relatively little experience with the game compared to other area teams. In 2002 Lee's golf team was ranked last in a golf competition, with none of the players selected to continue forward in the competition. The players did not like to be ranked first, because the best player would compete against other district golf teams. The teams of Bellaire
and Lamar
high schools had more experienced players, and many of them had played with golf professionals. During that year Ryan Rhodes, the coach, said "It really is frustrating for the guys and girls to go out there and compete against somebody who's been playing a lot longer and has a lot better grasp of the game." Amstutz said that the team was not as well performing as other teams, because the team had been recently established. As of 2011 Lee no longer offers golf.
said in 2010 that when she writes about Lee, she receives responses from Lee alumni. She said that some e-mails criticize illegal immigration
, holding it responsible for Lee High School's decline. She receives some complaints about Lee no longer using the name "Robert E. Lee."
After Falkenberg aired her 2010 column about former principal Paul Castro leaving the school after three months, she received messages from school alumni who stated that they intended to help Lee. 1965 Lee graduate Martin Bailey requested for volunteers to assist the school. Two alumni, Tom Behrman, and John Carloss, began discussing possibilities of charitable activity with the school administration, including donating to the Lee NEXT STEP Fund, a nonprofit fund that places Lee students in career and university preparatory programs; mentoring; and holding speaking events.
In April 2010 a group of alumni who intended to start an alumni organization organized a tour of the school. One alum in the tour, Joe Berwick, reported that he enjoyed meeting the students. Another, Behrman, expressed disappointment towards the deteriorated condition of the physical plant. After the Lee tour, the involved alumni proceeded to award two $5,000 scholarships to Lee students. An editorial in the Houston Chronicle praised the alumni for supporting their school. Three Lee alumni, Behrman, Melanie Hauser, and Richard Spence, founded the Robert E. Lee High School Alumni Association to reconnect alumni with their alma mater and provide additional, ongoing assistance for Lee High School and to help it improve its community relations.
A significant number of Lee's students now come from the Gulfton community, a group of apartment complexes housing recent immigrants. Other areas zoned to Lee include Uptown Houston
, St. George Place (Lamar Terrace), Larchmont, Briargrove, Shenandoah, Tanglewood, Tanglewilde, Briar Meadow, Briarcroft, Woodlake, Jeanetta, the Houston ISD portions of Piney Point Village
and Hunters Creek Village
, Sharpstown Country Club Estates, and small portions of Westchase
east of Gessner Road.
Lee High School served all areas within the Westside attendance boundary until its 2000 opening, including Walnut Bend, Briargrove Park, and Rivercrest. The pre-2000 Lee attendance zone bordered City of Bellaire
, the communities of Alief and Spring Branch
, and Greater Katy
.
es for students who live more than 2 miles (3.2 km) away from the school or who have major obstacles between their houses and the school. Students are eligible if they are zoned to Lee or are in the Lee magnet program. A METRO
bus stop is located beside the school's entrance.
(portions)
Middle schools that feed into Lee include:
Partial:
All pupils zoned to Pilgrim K-8 are zoned to Lee.
All pupils zoned to Long and Pershing Middle Schools may attend Pin Oak Middle School
. Accordingly, Pin Oak also feeds into Lee High School.
Students of the Briargrove, Emerson, Pilgrim, and Piney Point elementary attendance zones may also attend Briarmeadow Charter School, so that school feeds into Lee.
Texas°N date=December 2010°W
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
77057. The Houston Independent School District
Houston Independent School District
The Houston Independent School District is the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and insular municipalities...
, the 7th largest school district in the United States, operates Lee, a public admission school that enrolls grades 9 through 12 ( ages 14–19 ). The school serves the Gulfton neighborhood of Houston and other communities within the city.
History
Lee High School is officially Robert E. Lee Senior High School, named after Robert E. LeeRobert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
and opened in 1962 to relieve high attendance at Lamar
Lamar High School (Houston)
Mirabeau B. Lamar Senior High School is a secondary school located at 3325 Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas, United States, with a zip code of 77098...
and Bellaire high schools. At that time, Lee High School had a white and mostly affluent and suburban student body. For its first twenty five years, Lee High School had an predominantly white, affluent, college bound suburban student body, gathered primarily from the Afton Oaks, Tanglewood, Briargrove, Briarcroft/Briarmeadow and Rivercrest/Briargrove Park neighborhoods, south of Buffalo Bayou. It has been home to multiple award winning students, faculty, programs, athletic teams and graduates over its history. The school's motto is "Fortune Favors the Brave", taken from the Lee family and based on the Roman philosopher Virgil's quote.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy
United Daughters of the Confederacy
The United Daughters of the Confederacy is a women's heritage association dedicated to honoring the memory of those who served in the military and died in service to the Confederate States of America . UDC began as the National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy, organized in 1894 by...
's Robert E. Lee chapter number 186 supported the school in its early years; it donated portraits of Lee, gave American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
-related books to the library, and gave the school a rebel flag. The school's symbol is the Lee family coat of arms, which has a squirrel on the top holding a nut.
The Lee campus was the subject of a 1974 "60 Minutes" story on drug culture in American High Schools. It was expanded significantly by HISD to address overcrowding two times in its first 25 years; first in 1967, and again in 1987.
As times changed, the demographic of Lee's student body shifted. As of 2008, it was made up predominantly of Hispanic immigrants and sons and daughters of Hispanic immigrants. Lee's multi-ethnic population changes parallel Houston's immigration waves, beginning with the Vietnamese families in the early 1980s. With the change in apartment housing rules in the 1980s, both the community and the school population changed. The demographic of Lee's student body shifted significantly in the 1990s, as student's from the south zone (Gulfton area) who are a majority Mexican and Central American immigrants and/or sons and daughters of Hispanic immigrants became the overwhelming majority of the student body. Lee became one of the largest 5A high schools in the region by the late 1990s.
Lee's student body was relieved of about 1,000 students when Westside High School
Westside High School (Houston)
Westside High School is a secondary school in Houston, Texas, United States. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Houston Independent School District.The school is located at 14201 Briar Forest in Houston, Texas, in the 77077 zip code...
, about 7 miles (11.3 km) west of Lee, opened in 2000, removing the last significant numbers of middle-class students and non-Hispanic White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
students. When Westside opened, residents of the Lee attendance boundary gained the option to attend Westside instead of Lee.
Around 2000 the school stopped using the "Robert E." part of the same, and its logo became that of a four-point, star-bodied person. Steve Amstutz, the principal, said around that year "People think we stole it from Cingular." The school removed its portraits of Robert E. Lee. The star in the logo juggles ten balls, representing ten learning communities established around that year to provide personalized education to students. The establishment of the learning communities was part of a $68 million HISD initiative to personalize and improve high schools throughout the district; this reflected a national trend of personalizing education in high schools.
Newcomer Charter High School (as of 2007, known as Liberty High School), was opened in January 2005, and housed in Lee High School until summer 2007, when the new campus at 6400 Southwest Freeway (U.S. Highway 59) opened.
According to the Houston Independent School District October 2006 "For Your Information" newsletter, Lee was one of four high schools that took the most refugees from Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
.
In 2007, a study by Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
and the Associated Press referred to Lee among American high schools designated as "dropout factories", where at least 40% of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.
YES Prep Lee, a charter
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
middle school, was located inside the Lee High School campus; the school planned to expand to a six through 12 campus with 30 classrooms. In the summer of 2007 the school was established on the third floor of Lee High School. YES paid $65,000 annually to lease the space. YES intended to grow its school to around 700 students. YES and charter officials wanted state officials to pass a bill allowing schools occupying the same campus to share test scores; the bill failed.
In 2008 Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
and Melinda Gates
Melinda Gates
Melinda Ann French , later known as Melinda French Gates, is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the wife of Bill Gates...
visited Lee and the YES Prep school inside Lee.
In December, 2009, YES Prep moved all of the around 400 students in the Lee program off of the Lee campus. In January 2010 the board of YES Prep voted to terminate its partnership with Lee High School. YES Prep Lee, now YES Prep Gulfton, is no longer located inside Lee High School.
In 2010, Amstutz stopped being the principal of Lee. HISD did not state whether his departure was voluntary or involuntary. Amstutz continued to be an employee of HISD. Paul Castro from Westside High School
Westside High School (Houston)
Westside High School is a secondary school in Houston, Texas, United States. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Houston Independent School District.The school is located at 14201 Briar Forest in Houston, Texas, in the 77077 zip code...
was transferred to become the new principal of Lee High School. He resigned after three months. In April 2010 Terry Grier, the superintendent, announced that he had an improvement plan for Lee. Xochitl Rodriguez-Davila was promoted from HISD's Stonewall Jackson Middle School leader to become Robert E. Lee's 14th principal in July, 2010.
During that summer Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
ranked Lee HS among the "America's Best High Schools" list.
Facility
In 2010 Lisa Falkenberg said "The Lee of today, with its crumbling façade and graffiti on nearby buildings, is far from the glistening school on the prairie that opened in 1962 to relieve overcrowding at prestigious Lamar HighLamar High School (Houston)
Mirabeau B. Lamar Senior High School is a secondary school located at 3325 Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas, United States, with a zip code of 77098...
." As of 2010, one of the brick façades outside one of the entrances had bricks missing. Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
said that it was "left to gape like a toothless mouth for the past eight years." After Xochitl Rodriguez-Davila was hired as the Lee principal, she arranged a campus facelift.
During that year, HISD reported that two distinct portions of the 49 year old main school building's foundation are sinking into the ground at different rates.
Student body
Houston Robert E. Lee High School had 1,891 students during the 2010-11 school year. They are drawn largely from its attendance zone, which borders include Bellaire Blvd., Gessner Road, Buffalo Bayou and IH 610 West. There are a smaller percentage of magnet students drawn from multiple other zones within the HISD boundaries.The ethnic diversity break down of the 2010-11 student body is:
- <2% White AmericanWhite AmericanWhite Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
- 3% Asian AmericanAsian AmericanAsian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
- 84+% Hispanic AmericanHispanic and Latino AmericansHispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
- 11% African AmericanAfrican AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
- Less than 1% was Native AmericanIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
.
In 2010-11, Lee qualifies as a US Department of Education Title I campus: thus, 97% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced breakfast and lunch under federal poverty guidelines.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Lee's student body consisted of affluent White American
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
s. Principal Steve Amstutz stated in 2003 that Lee's student body was "a sea of white faces. They all looked like me." As the school matured, the demographics of the students changed. By the 1999 Lee was very overcrowded, so many students had to use air conditioning units as chairs. Around that time period, half of a given 9th grade class would no longer be present in the class once it became a 12th grade class. Around 1999, students fought in the hallways daily. The opening of Westside High School
Westside High School (Houston)
Westside High School is a secondary school in Houston, Texas, United States. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Houston Independent School District.The school is located at 14201 Briar Forest in Houston, Texas, in the 77077 zip code...
in 2000 removed the last significant numbers of White and upper income students, causing the school to refocus itself to cater to its new population.
In a 2003 article by the Houston Press
Houston Press
The Houston Press is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in Downtown Houston....
, Amstutz stated, referring to the "Hispanic" designation, "But that covers from Nuevo Laredo
Nuevo Laredo
Nuevo Laredo is a city located in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Río Grande, across from the United States city of Laredo, Texas. The 2010 census population of the city was 373,725. Nuevo Laredo is part of the Laredo-Nuevo...
to Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...
. We're from the top of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
to the south of Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. And I've got kids from everywhere in between." Amstutz said in a 2002 article that "Sometimes I can lose a whole country in a day, other times I can gain one." Lisa Falkenberg said in 2010 that Lee was a school "Where being Rwandan isn't 'weird'".
In 2010 Harvin Moore, Lee's HISD school board trustee, said "There is no high school in Houston that has a more unique and difficult challenge with respect to a significant portion of the children who attend there," citing the concentration of older, immigrant students who come from third world
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
countries and often lack basic education.
As of 2010 over 40 languages were spoken by the Lee High School student body, and the number of English language learners, over 700, was higher than the populations of some other peer high schools in the area.
Student dress and school uniform
Lee High School requires students to wear a school uniformSchool uniform
A school uniform is an outfit—a set of standardized clothes—worn primarily for an educational institution. They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries . When used, they form the basis of a school's dress code.Traditionally school uniforms have been largely subdued and...
.
Students wear the school's two colors from Monday through Thursday:
- Seniors wear gold shirts and underclassmen wear Grey, solid "Polo style" 2-button knit shirts.
- All students wear Black or Khaki pants, shorts, or skorts.
Students have the option of wearing a university/college t-shirt or a Lee HS club shirt (only) on Fridays.
Additionally, At the end of each month, seniors can opt to dress professionally on a designated day.
Some teachers who worked at Lee after the student population became mostly Hispanic recalled that some members of gangs
Gangs in the United States
Street gangs in the United States date to the early 19th century. The most publicized street gangs in the U.S. are African-American; black gangs were not recognized as a social problem until after the great migration of the 1910s...
who were enrolled at Lee openly wore gang colors and other gang insignia while on campus.
Academic environment
In 2010 Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston ChronicleHouston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
said of Lee: "Lee High School isn't your typical failing school. In one campus, its students seem to personify every major socio-economic problem and demographic challenge facing urban schools today. At the same time, it's a petri dish for academic innovation, full of Stand and Deliver
Stand and Deliver
Stand and Deliver is a 1988 American drama film, based on the true story of high school mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante. Edward James Olmos portrayed Escalante in the film and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.-Plot:...
-type successes." During that year she also said "The school is flailing in a test-driven accountability system blind to extenuating circumstances like poverty, pregnancy, 30 percent student turnover, and 780 students out of 1,850 considered “English language learners.”"
Lee High School U.S. Army(JROTC) program has re-emerged as a force, improving from 24th to 7th place, out of the 25 HISD Army based student programs. Successful, statewide award winning distributive teaching programs in Metal-fabrication and Woodworking have been built in recent years, as well.
In 2010, Lee had improved its state mandated TAKS test scores significantly, yet was named academically "unacceptable" by the TEA, due to its 30% dropout rate. As a result of 3+ years of this designation, it became one of the HISD "Apollo 20" laboratory schools. It was subject to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) "turnaround" model for reforming schools in jeopardy of closing, including replacing the administration and much of the existing faculty. As of 2010 the think tank "Children at Risk" ranked Lee as one of the most improved high schools in Greater Houston.
When Lee began as a high school, all of its foreign language activities occurred in the "Language Lab" area.
AP/Magnet Program
Lee High School administers an advanced placement curriculum, where high performing students take college level classes while in high school and earn college level credits. The number of students taking AP courses and exams has increased dramatically since the AP Program was re-introduced at Lee. A March 2009 Houston ChronicleHouston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
article stated that the student body took approximately 550 AP tests; eight times the number taken in 2004. In June, 2010, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine ranked Lee #151 out of over 16,000 schools nationwide, acknowledging it among "America's Best High Schools" for its number of students taking AP tests. Jason Spencer of the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
called the ranking a "head scratcher," since prior to the announcement of the ranking the HISD administration had forced 160 teachers at Lee and other schools to leave due to low performance. Thompson explained that the ranking system, which divides all of the AP exams taken by the total number of students, is "freakishly simplistic" since it does not take into account performance during the AP exams. The ranking done by the think tank "Children at Risk" that year placed Lee in number 133 out of 140 high schools. Responding to the Newsweek ranking, HISD superintendent Terry Grier said "The efforts at Lee High School to encourage more students to take college-level courses are to be commended. We must raise the level of achievement for all students, and it is for this reason that we will be initiating the Apollo 20 project at Lee in the next school year. We will continue to build on the work you and your colleagues have done so that we can ensure that every child in our school district receives a quality education that will prepare him or her for college and career success."
There are a number of advanced, college prep Advanced Placement courses taught at Lee, including:
AP World History
AP U.S. History
AP U.S. Government & Politics
AP Macroeconomics
AP English Language
AP English Literature
AP Calculus AB
AP Calculus BC
AP Statistics
AP Studio Art
AP Spanish Language
AP Spanish Literature
AP French Language
AP Biology
AP Environmental Science
AP Physics B
In May 2010, 300 students signed up to take approximately 800 AP tests, with increases in exemplary scores in AP US Government, AP Macroeconomics, and AP Calculus across the board.
The school is divided into 4 academies, paralleling grades 9-12, each managed by an assistant principal. There is an additional academy for non-English speaking students and 9th graders in need of ESL or additional math or English tutoring.
Clubs and organizations
There are a steadily growing number of extracurricular clubs and student organizations at Lee.Some of these include:
- Lee Guard Dance Team
- National Honor Society
- Debate Team- Houston Area Forensics
- Lee Book Club
- Anime Club
- Academic Decathlon
- Gay-Straight Alliance/HATCH
- Modern Music Club
- Welding Club
- US Army/ JROTC
- Ecology Club
- Culinary Arts Club
- Cheerleaders
- Young Life
In 2010 Lee no longer offered band and orchestra.
From 1962-2000, Lee had student service organizations, including Pilot Club for Women's Anchor Club, Galleria Area Rotary Club's "Interact," and Kiwanis Club's Key Club
Key Club
Key Club International is the oldest and largest service program for high school students. It is a student-led organization whose goal is to teach leadership through serving others. Key Club International is a part of the Kiwanis International family of service-leadership programs...
. Marla Morrow, a former student quoted in Education Week
Education Week
Education Week is a United States national newspaper covering K-12 education. It is published by Editorial Projects in Education , a non-profit organization, which is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland...
, said that prospective members of the Key Club were required to reproduce the financial statement
Financial statement
A financial statement is a formal record of the financial activities of a business, person, or other entity. In British English—including United Kingdom company law—a financial statement is often referred to as an account, although the term financial statement is also used, particularly by...
s of their parents. As of 2011, Galleria Rotary Club is working with both Robert E. Lee and Lamar High Schools to re-organize and sponsor Interact student service clubs at each campus.
Athletics
Robert E. Lee HS currently plays a full complement of UIL girls and boys varsity sports in District 21-4A, along with HISD's Waltrip, Davis, Yates, Sharpstown, Reagan, & Austin High Schools. Lee has alternated as a 4A and 5A school throughout its 50 year history, playing in 19-4A, 18-4A, 18-5A, 21-5A, and the current 17-4A district. It plays Men's varsity soccer in UIL District 44-A, where it is the 2011 District Champions.Robert E. Lee Varsity sports teams include:
- Baseball (club)
- Basketball (Girls)
- Basketball (Boys)
- Cross Country (Girls)
- Cross Country (Boys)
- Football (2010–2011)
- Dance/ Drill
- Track & Field (Co-ed)
- Volleyball (Girls)
- Wrestling (Boys)
- Soccer (Girls)
- Soccer (Boys)
American football team
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Lee High School's American footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team often appeared in high school playoffs. Many famous football players and coaches were involved in the program. Of the seven most recent inductees to the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame as of August 24, 2010, two were involved with Lee High School. Joe Clemens, a famous football coach, coached at Lee in the 1960s. Peter Gardere
Peter Gardere
Peter Alexander Gardere is a former American football quarterback, famous for his four-year tenure as Texas Longhorns quarterback in the late 1980s/early 1990s....
, a former University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
quarterback, played for Lee in the 1980s. The significance of American football at Lee decreased when the student demographics changed.
The opening of Westside High School
Westside High School (Houston)
Westside High School is a secondary school in Houston, Texas, United States. It serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Houston Independent School District.The school is located at 14201 Briar Forest in Houston, Texas, in the 77077 zip code...
, which decreased the number of students at Lee from 3,100 to 2,100, drained most of the American football players from the school and the school did not have enough children who were interested in playing American football. In 2003 the school dropped American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
from its sports program; This is likely because American football is not a popular sport in the home countries of its largely Hispanic student body. Steve Amstutz, the principal, said that he did not receive complaints after the team was cut. After 2003 soccer (football) became the main sport at Lee High School. Soccer is played at Lee's homecoming games instead of football. In 2010, some alumni visiting the school expressed shock when they found out that football was not a sport at Lee. Around 1995,the principal at Lee had virtually all of its athletic and academic trophies thrown out, leaving the cases empty.
In February 2010 the school administration decided to re-establish American football as a school sport. As of May 2010 plans to re-establish American football were ongoing. The school administration assembled the football team from scratch. As of August 2010 the players originated from countries in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and other countries. The team had some Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
players. In 2010, the R.E. Lee Alumni Association worked with the school and district, and established a partnership with the Houston Texans Football Team, to help re-establish a permanent football program. In accordance with UIL rules, LEE will field a JV football squad for 2010 and 2011, returning to 21-4A Varsity District play in Fall, 2012.
Golf team
Lee High School's home green was the Sharpstown Golf Course, a municipal golf course in Sharpstown, Greater Sharpstown, Houston located about 4 miles (6.4 km) from Lee.The Lee High School girls' golf team existed in the 1970s. When the demographics of the school shifted, the golf team ended. Around the time that American football was cut, the school revived its boys' and girls' golf teams. As of 2003 six boys and four girls played golf for Lee; one of the ten was a White American
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
. Steve Amstutz, the principal, explained that Lee founded the team to teach students how to learn to commit to a goal and to give them an activity that would keep them involved and attending school.
As of 2003 the Lee golf team had relatively little experience with the game compared to other area teams. In 2002 Lee's golf team was ranked last in a golf competition, with none of the players selected to continue forward in the competition. The players did not like to be ranked first, because the best player would compete against other district golf teams. The teams of Bellaire
Bellaire High School (Bellaire, Texas)
Bellaire High School is a secondary school of the Houston Independent School District, and its campus is located in Bellaire, Texas ....
and Lamar
Lamar High School (Houston)
Mirabeau B. Lamar Senior High School is a secondary school located at 3325 Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas, United States, with a zip code of 77098...
high schools had more experienced players, and many of them had played with golf professionals. During that year Ryan Rhodes, the coach, said "It really is frustrating for the guys and girls to go out there and compete against somebody who's been playing a lot longer and has a lot better grasp of the game." Amstutz said that the team was not as well performing as other teams, because the team had been recently established. As of 2011 Lee no longer offers golf.
Parent-teacher organization
When Westside HS opened in 2000, most of the infrastructure and active parents transferred their allegiance and PTO assets to the new school. As a result, since 2000, Lee does not have a parent-teacher organization.Alumni and alumni organizations
As of 2010 Lee is coordinating an alumni database with Harris Publishing and has an on campus alumni liaison group. Almost all of the inquiries that former Lee principal Steve Amstutz received from Lee alumni (2000–2009) asked for information on when school reunions would occur. Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston ChronicleHouston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
said in 2010 that when she writes about Lee, she receives responses from Lee alumni. She said that some e-mails criticize illegal immigration
Illegal immigration
Illegal immigration is the migration into a nation in violation of the immigration laws of that jurisdiction. Illegal immigration raises many political, economical and social issues and has become a source of major controversy in developed countries and the more successful developing countries.In...
, holding it responsible for Lee High School's decline. She receives some complaints about Lee no longer using the name "Robert E. Lee."
After Falkenberg aired her 2010 column about former principal Paul Castro leaving the school after three months, she received messages from school alumni who stated that they intended to help Lee. 1965 Lee graduate Martin Bailey requested for volunteers to assist the school. Two alumni, Tom Behrman, and John Carloss, began discussing possibilities of charitable activity with the school administration, including donating to the Lee NEXT STEP Fund, a nonprofit fund that places Lee students in career and university preparatory programs; mentoring; and holding speaking events.
In April 2010 a group of alumni who intended to start an alumni organization organized a tour of the school. One alum in the tour, Joe Berwick, reported that he enjoyed meeting the students. Another, Behrman, expressed disappointment towards the deteriorated condition of the physical plant. After the Lee tour, the involved alumni proceeded to award two $5,000 scholarships to Lee students. An editorial in the Houston Chronicle praised the alumni for supporting their school. Three Lee alumni, Behrman, Melanie Hauser, and Richard Spence, founded the Robert E. Lee High School Alumni Association to reconnect alumni with their alma mater and provide additional, ongoing assistance for Lee High School and to help it improve its community relations.
Neighborhoods served
A large area of west/southwest Houston outside of the 610 Loop have zoning regulations that funnel students to Lee,A significant number of Lee's students now come from the Gulfton community, a group of apartment complexes housing recent immigrants. Other areas zoned to Lee include Uptown Houston
Uptown Houston
The Uptown District of Houston is located 6.2 miles west of downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard, Westheimer Road , and the Galleria...
, St. George Place (Lamar Terrace), Larchmont, Briargrove, Shenandoah, Tanglewood, Tanglewilde, Briar Meadow, Briarcroft, Woodlake, Jeanetta, the Houston ISD portions of Piney Point Village
Piney Point Village, Texas
Piney Point Village is a city in Harris County, Texas. The population was 3,380 at the 2000 census. Piney Point Village is also considered one of the wealthiest communities in the Greater Houston area.-History:...
and Hunters Creek Village
Hunters Creek Village, Texas
Hunters Creek Village is a city in Harris County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,374 at the 2000 census.The United States Postal Service uses "Houston" for all Hunters Creek Village addresses; "Hunters Creek Village" is not an acceptable city designation for mail addressed to places in...
, Sharpstown Country Club Estates, and small portions of Westchase
Westchase, Houston, Texas
Westchase is a business management district, with some residential and retail elements, located in western Houston, Texas, United States. The district is bounded roughly by Westheimer Road on the north, Gessner Road on the east, Wilcrest Drive on the west, and the Westpark Tollway on the south...
east of Gessner Road.
Lee High School served all areas within the Westside attendance boundary until its 2000 opening, including Walnut Bend, Briargrove Park, and Rivercrest. The pre-2000 Lee attendance zone bordered City of Bellaire
Bellaire, Texas
Bellaire is a city in southwest Harris County, Texas, United States, within the metropolitan area. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 15,642 and is completely surrounded by the cities of Houston and West University Place....
, the communities of Alief and Spring Branch
Spring Branch
There are two places and one school district named Spring Branch:*Spring Branch, Comal County, Texas, an area covering most of western Comal County, north of San Antonio.*Spring Branch, Houston, Texas, a community located in Houston....
, and Greater Katy
Greater Katy
This article is in reference to the area around the City of Katy, Texas. For more information regarding the City itself, please go directly to Katy, Texas....
.
Transportation
Houston ISD provides school busSchool bus
A school bus is a type of bus designed and manufactured for student transport: carrying children and teenagers to and from school and school events...
es for students who live more than 2 miles (3.2 km) away from the school or who have major obstacles between their houses and the school. Students are eligible if they are zoned to Lee or are in the Lee magnet program. A METRO
Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County is a major public transportation agency based in Houston . It operates bus, light rail, future commuter rail, and paratransit service in the city as well as most of Harris County...
bus stop is located beside the school's entrance.
Feeder patterns
Elementary schools that feed into Lee include:- Briargrove
- Benavidez
- Piney Point
- Rodriguez
(portions)
- Braeburn
- Condit
- Cunningham
- Emerson
- St. George Place
- Sutton
Middle schools that feed into Lee include:
- Grady
Partial:
- Long
- PershingPershing Middle School (Houston)John J. Pershing Middle School is a secondary school located at 3838 Bluebonnet in Houston, Texas with a zip code of 77025.Pershing, located in the Braeswood Place neighborhood, serves grades 6 through 8 and is a part of the Houston Independent School District.Pershing has a neighborhood program, a...
- Revere
All pupils zoned to Pilgrim K-8 are zoned to Lee.
All pupils zoned to Long and Pershing Middle Schools may attend Pin Oak Middle School
Pin Oak Middle School
Pin Oak Middle School is a secondary school that is located in Bellaire, Texas, United States. Pin Oak, which serves grades 6 through 8, is a part of the Houston Independent School District. It is located near the intersection of the 610 Loop and U.S. Route 59...
. Accordingly, Pin Oak also feeds into Lee High School.
Students of the Briargrove, Emerson, Pilgrim, and Piney Point elementary attendance zones may also attend Briarmeadow Charter School, so that school feeds into Lee.
Notable alumni
- Justin Avery Anderson (the creator of the Anderson Trail granola company) - 2005
- H. Clay Dahlberg (artist) - 1965
- Jeff Filgo (television producer and screenwriter) - 1985
- Peter GarderePeter GarderePeter Alexander Gardere is a former American football quarterback, famous for his four-year tenure as Texas Longhorns quarterback in the late 1980s/early 1990s....
(American football player and member of the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame) - 1988 - Billy GibbonsBilly GibbonsWilliam Frederick "Billy" Gibbons is an American musician, actor and car customizer, best known as the guitarist of the Texas blues-rock band ZZ Top. He is also the lead singer and composer for many of the band's songs. Gibbons is known for playing his Gretsch Billy Bo guitar and his famous 1959...
(member of ZZ TopZZ TopZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
) - 1968 - Edward Gonzalez (Houston City CouncilHouston City CouncilThe Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas.Currently, there are fourteen members, nine elected from council districts and five at-large. The members of the Council are elected every two years, in odd-numbered years...
member) - 1987 - Thai Grundy Jr. (Senior vice president of Sovereign Oil Company) - 1971, Attended but did not graduate
- Melanie Hauser (freelance sports writer) - 1971
- Randy Lemmon (radio personality on Houston's KPRCKPRC (AM)KPRC is a talk radio station in Houston, Texas, branded as "The 950 - Radio MOJO". Started in 1925, it is the oldest station in the market...
) - 1980 - Jordan Levin (CEO of Generate) - 1985, attended but did not graduate
- Mike QuinnMike QuinnMichael Patrick Quinn is a former professional gridiron football quarterback. He was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 1997 and was also a member of the Rhein Fire, Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, Montreal Alouettes...
(American football player) - Robert K. Ritner (Professor of EgyptologyEgyptologyEgyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
at Oriental Institute of the University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
) - 1971 - Richard Spence (United States Small Business Administration assistant secretary for legislative affairs, Texas SenateTexas SenateThe Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing 31 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 672,000 per constituency. There are no term limits, and each term is four years long. The Senate meets at the...
economic development committee chief of staff) - 1987 - Ron Stone Jr. (author and reporter on KPRC-TVKPRC-TVKPRC-TV is the NBC affiliated television station based in Houston, Texas, and serving the Greater Houston television market. It has studios located in the Sharpstown district on the Southwest portion of the city, and has a transmitter site in unincorporated Fort Bend County near Missouri City...
station) - 1981 - Steve Smyers (golf course architect) - 1971
- D. Gibson Walton (president of the State Bar of TexasState Bar of TexasThe State Bar of Texas is an agency of the judiciary under the administrative control of the Texas Supreme Court. The Texas Bar is responsible for assisting the Texas Supreme Court in overseeing all attorneys licensed to practice law in Texas...
) - 1968 - Greg Watson (Houston TexansHouston TexansThe Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is currently a member of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
vice president of finance) - 1989 - John P. WhiteJohn P. WhiteDr. John P. White BS, MA, PhD is an American university professor and a former Government official who served in the Clinton Administration.White is the Robert and Renee Belfer Lecturer at the John F...
(actor) - 1991 - Stiles White (film production coordinator and writer) - 1987
Notable employees
- Joe Clemens (football coach and inductee into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame)
See also
- Houston Independent School DistrictHouston Independent School DistrictThe Houston Independent School District is the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and insular municipalities...
- Hispanics in the United States
External links
- Lee High School's official website
- Tee Time - Houston PressHouston PressThe Houston Press is an alternative weekly newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in Downtown Houston....
- Robert E. Lee Alumni Association Website
- Report on Houston High Schools by WhatKidsCanDo
- Lee Next Step Fund
- Letters from Lee
- Former Lee football coach Joe Clements in Texas HSHOF—May 3, 2010
- Peter Gardere inducted into the Texas HSHOF, May 1, 2010
Texas°N date=December 2010°W