Beaumont Independent School District

The original Beaumont Independent School District, with Beaumont High School as its senior high school, was founded in 1883[3] and included the neighborhoods of downtown and the port area, and in 1948 absorbed the smaller French ISD on the north side, with French High School. It also operated a high school for black students, Charlton-Pollard High School.[7] In 1975, as part of court-ordered desegregation of the district, this merged with Beaumont High School to form Beaumont-Charlton-Pollard High School.[8][9]

South Park Independent School District was founded in 1891[3][10] but was shaped by the aftermath of the discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901; it took its name from the neighborhood at the south end of the city that grew up to house oil-field workers in the resulting boom. It operated South Park High School and came to include the expanding neighborhoods on the west side of Beaumont, where it opened Forest Park High School in the 1960s. It also had a high school for black students, Hebert High School.[7]

South Park ISD included the wealthiest neighborhoods and could also draw on tax funds from the city's petrochemical plants, while Beaumont ISD was relatively poor.[11] This disparity was exacerbated by white flight. Both school districts were the subject of integration efforts in the 1970s, but whereas the majority-black Beaumont ISD showed progress toward integration, the majority-white South Park ISD attracted less attention and both white parents and local federal judge Joe Fisher resisted integration.[11][12] Redrawn attendance boundaries as mandated by the federal government in 1970 caused white families to abandon affected neighborhoods.[8] A choice program did not result in desegregation, and the district board resisted an order to devise a plan to achieve it.[11] As a result of rulings by federal district judge Robert Parker, that August students through eighth grade were assigned schools by means of a lottery using ping-pong balls, and effective with the 1982–1983 school year Hebert and Forest Park were merged to form a single integrated high school, West Brook Senior High School.[9][11][12] (South Park High School was subsequently also merged into West Brook.)

In the aftermath of the court-ordered integration and after West Brook won the state football championship in its first year, South Park voters declined to re-elect the one black member of the school board, a Lamar University mathematics professor, and defeated a proposal to merge with the Beaumont ISD; black voters in that school district helped defeat the measure because the district had allowed them considerable autonomy in administering the segregated black schools. The board of Beaumont ISD then voted in August 1983 to dissolve their district, as a result of which it was attached to the South Park district to form the present Beaumont ISD.[11][13][14] Lawsuits by blacks in both districts followed: by Beaumont ISD voters to nullify the dissolution because they now had no representation on the school board, and by South Park ISD voters against the school board, the Jefferson County Commissioners Court and the Beaumont City Council over lack of representation.[13]

The merger was effective July 1, 1984, with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) stating that South Park ISD merged into Beaumont ISD.[15]

In the first school board vote after the merger, a 4–3 black majority was elected.[9] After one term this became a 4–3 white majority, a situation that continued into the 1990s, when the court orders mandating desegregation expired and the board became split over continuing busing. The Texas Education Agency monitored the district for three years.[9][11]

In 1994, as a result of continued white flight to particular neighborhoods, a black majority was again elected to the board, which introduced neighborhood school zoning with a promise to ensure access to superior schools for all students.[11][8] The board appointed Carrol "Butch" Thomas, superintendent of the North Forest Independent School District in Houston, as the district's first black superintendent.[9] He remained for 16 years, until 2012.[11] Racially charged political struggles over representation on the school board continued during his tenure.[16] During the 1980s and 1990s the city continued to consolidate high schools; the buildings of South Park High School and French High School both became middle schools, with French being merged with Beaumont-Charlton-Pollard, which was renamed Central High School.[9]

The city was granted unitary status in 2007, indicating that the schools had been successfully desegregated; however, very few white students were enrolled in district schools.[17] Also in 2007, voters passed a $389 million bond issue, which the school district used to renovate schools, build new ones, and build the Carrol A. "Butch" Thomas Educational Support Center, a stadium for the use of all district high schools that was named after Thomas after he announced his retirement. Some money from the bond issue could not be accounted for, and some district staff and suppliers were found to have misused district funds, including two employees who pleaded guilty to embezzling over $4 million.[11]

Following several investigations including monitoring of testing after admissions from staff that students had received assistance including changes to answer sheets,[18][19] the Texas Education Agency announced in April 2014 that it would take over the district.[11][20] A conservator was appointed to manage the district and on July 14, 2014, Vern Butler, former interim superintendent of the El Paso Independent School District, was named interim superintendent at Beaumont, with a seven-member board of managers temporarily replacing the elected board of trustees. Among the managers is James M. Simmons, a former president of Lamar University.[21][22] In April 2015 the board of managers named John Frossard, superintendent of the Wichita Falls Independent School District, as district superintendent. He announced his retirement in February 2019. In April 2019, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Schools, Dr. Shannon Allen was unanimously selected by the school board as the lone finalist for Superintendent. The school board was heavily criticized for not looking outside the school district for a new superintendent.[23] Elections for the board of trustees are to take place in 2017, with members of the board of managers being gradually replaced by elected trustees over three or more years.[24]

High Schools (Grades 9–12)

• West Brook Senior High School
• Early College High School
• Beaumont United High School (merger of Ozen and Central High Schools)

Middle Schools (Grades 6–8)

• King Middle School
• George C. Marshall Middle School
• John P. Odom Academy
• Willie Ray Smith Science & Medical Technology Magnet Middle School
• South Park Middle School (formerly South Park High School)
• Vincent Middle School

Elementary Schools (Grades PK/K–5)

• Amelia Elementary School
• Bingman Headstart Preschool
• Blanchette Elementary School
• Caldwood Elementary School
• Charlton-Pollard Elementary School
• Sallie Curtis Elementary School
• Dishman Elementary School
• Fehl-Price Elementary School
• Fletcher Elementary School
• Roy Guess Elementary School
• Homer Elementary School
• Dr. Mae E. Jones-Clark Elementary School
• Anthony Lucas Pre-K Center
• Martin Elementary School
• Pietzch-MacArthur Elementary School
• Regina Howell Elementary School

• Pathways Learning Center (alternative center)
• Paul A. Brown Learning Center (credit recovery)
• O.C. Mike Taylor Career Center (career training)

In addition, as required, the district operates the Jefferson County Youth Academy, a juvenile justice alternative education program for students aged 10–16 or until graduation.[25][26]

In addition to former high schools, the district formerly operated the following elementary and middle schools:

• Dunbar Elementary (now Charlton-Pollard Elementary School)
• Bingman Elementary School (merged with Blanchette Elementary School, building now Bingman PreK)
• Field Elementary (now BISD Annex Administration Building)
• French Elementary (reconstructed as Dr. Mae E. Jones Clark Elementary School)
• Ogden Elementary (now Pathways Alternative School)
• Southerland Headstart (demolished)
• Stephen F. Austin Middle School (merged with Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School)
• Central Medical Magnet High School (Closed due to damage from Hurricane Harvey, merged with Clifton J. Ozen High School)
• Clifton J. Ozen High School (merged with Central High School to create Beaumont United High School)