AISD must be the most head-stuck-in-the-sand school district on the planet.
At one time Amarillo was the capitol city of the Panhandle and Amarillo High was one of the preeminent high flying schools in the entire state and has multiple trophies to prove it - most from a long time ago...
Then, someone decided that 1200-1500 kids in a single public high school was big enough. So, starting in the 1950's, Amarillo AISD eventually divided into AHS, Palo Duro, Tascosa, and Caprock High Schools. Carver was assimilated into Tascosa and Palo Duro with its closure during the desegregation era of the 1960's.
All of these high schools were - at the time - part of the highest level of competition - AAAA (4A) - the state's largest designation at the time.
Then, mysteriously, Elizabeth Nixon High and Amarillo High (both in the declining downtown area of South Polk Street and essentially cut off by the "new" E-Way to Canyon) burned to the ground. The city fathers - most of whom were AISD alums, decided to move from the declining mid-town area to the most affluent SW Amarillo suburb area off Bell Street.
And as a result - gave up most of their previous area of Amarillo - now in decline - to Caprock, Palo Duro, and Tascosa - for them to deal with. AHS, of course, kept the more affluent areas for themselves.
Then, some amazing things happeneded.
Palo Duro, which originally had no geographic limits to its opportunity for growth in N-NE Amarillo (all the way to the Canadian and almost to Claude) suddenly found itself hemmed in by the new River Road High School and Highland Park High School. Nearby Catholic Price College HS closed due to location and inattendance.
Tascosa found itself limited by Bushland, and
Amarillo High found itself hemmed by CanyonISD - a city whose metro area is 15 miles away.
Only Caprock appears to have escaped these limits (Claude?, Canyon?) but still had to absorb much of the old AHS deteriorated downtown areas.
And, as a result - as most high schools in the state grew and (some) grew to ridiculous populations of 6,000+ (such as Judson, Plano, etc) the AISD high schools were essentially stymied and continued to be limited in their growth. And when the high school competitive enrollment limits elsewhere across the state started climbing into AAAAA (5A), and now AAAAAA (6A) the AISD schools - that used to be in the same district and competitive with one another - now find themselves having to travel half way across the state to find conference/district opponents in the same size/category - and increased expenses, etc., as a result.
In densely populated areas near large cities, these redistricting efforts are not nearly so impactive as now in Amarillo - now having to travel as far away as Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, Abilene, Midland-Odessa, etc for DISTRICT games, where used to be it was Lubbock, Borger and Pampa for conference - and that was as far as was required.
Used to be AISD schools traveled to these far away areas for maybe a single non-conference game... And now, to read about the complaints regarding long distance travel to a district game is somewhat comical, because in reality the AISD did it to themselves...
Now, to read about the change in student make-up with "foreigners" and "immigrants" and "relocated by the government to local area", etc., and not being able to keep up with their "needs" is frightening.
I have talked to many people who tell me that teachers at Tascosa, Palo Duro and Caprock get a premium because of poor test scores, etc.
Of course entitled AHS is still above all that, but are still getting further and further behind from a statewide competition and "presence" point of view.
Granted, when Amarillo AFB closed in 1968, the population in Amarillo plunged nearly 20,000 people - and Lubbock became the population leader with Reese AFB and TTech. This is also a point of acerbic discussion for OLD Amarillo residents, but beside the point of the AISD discussion here.
I realize that "growth" - especially in a school - is not necessarily all "good", and perhaps a public High School can be dealt with administratively at a smaller scale, but it seems to me AISD has not looked beyond its borders in many years and now finds itself not only land locked, but struggling to deal with issues that, though statewide, are proving difficult to resolve.
[This message has been edited by Aggie1 (edited 4/17/2014 4:40p).]
[This message has been edited by Aggie1 (edited 4/25/2014 7:57p).]
At one time Amarillo was the capitol city of the Panhandle and Amarillo High was one of the preeminent high flying schools in the entire state and has multiple trophies to prove it - most from a long time ago...
Then, someone decided that 1200-1500 kids in a single public high school was big enough. So, starting in the 1950's, Amarillo AISD eventually divided into AHS, Palo Duro, Tascosa, and Caprock High Schools. Carver was assimilated into Tascosa and Palo Duro with its closure during the desegregation era of the 1960's.
All of these high schools were - at the time - part of the highest level of competition - AAAA (4A) - the state's largest designation at the time.
Then, mysteriously, Elizabeth Nixon High and Amarillo High (both in the declining downtown area of South Polk Street and essentially cut off by the "new" E-Way to Canyon) burned to the ground. The city fathers - most of whom were AISD alums, decided to move from the declining mid-town area to the most affluent SW Amarillo suburb area off Bell Street.
And as a result - gave up most of their previous area of Amarillo - now in decline - to Caprock, Palo Duro, and Tascosa - for them to deal with. AHS, of course, kept the more affluent areas for themselves.
Then, some amazing things happeneded.
Palo Duro, which originally had no geographic limits to its opportunity for growth in N-NE Amarillo (all the way to the Canadian and almost to Claude) suddenly found itself hemmed in by the new River Road High School and Highland Park High School. Nearby Catholic Price College HS closed due to location and inattendance.
Tascosa found itself limited by Bushland, and
Amarillo High found itself hemmed by CanyonISD - a city whose metro area is 15 miles away.
Only Caprock appears to have escaped these limits (Claude?, Canyon?) but still had to absorb much of the old AHS deteriorated downtown areas.
And, as a result - as most high schools in the state grew and (some) grew to ridiculous populations of 6,000+ (such as Judson, Plano, etc) the AISD high schools were essentially stymied and continued to be limited in their growth. And when the high school competitive enrollment limits elsewhere across the state started climbing into AAAAA (5A), and now AAAAAA (6A) the AISD schools - that used to be in the same district and competitive with one another - now find themselves having to travel half way across the state to find conference/district opponents in the same size/category - and increased expenses, etc., as a result.
In densely populated areas near large cities, these redistricting efforts are not nearly so impactive as now in Amarillo - now having to travel as far away as Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, Abilene, Midland-Odessa, etc for DISTRICT games, where used to be it was Lubbock, Borger and Pampa for conference - and that was as far as was required.
Used to be AISD schools traveled to these far away areas for maybe a single non-conference game... And now, to read about the complaints regarding long distance travel to a district game is somewhat comical, because in reality the AISD did it to themselves...
Now, to read about the change in student make-up with "foreigners" and "immigrants" and "relocated by the government to local area", etc., and not being able to keep up with their "needs" is frightening.
I have talked to many people who tell me that teachers at Tascosa, Palo Duro and Caprock get a premium because of poor test scores, etc.
Of course entitled AHS is still above all that, but are still getting further and further behind from a statewide competition and "presence" point of view.
Granted, when Amarillo AFB closed in 1968, the population in Amarillo plunged nearly 20,000 people - and Lubbock became the population leader with Reese AFB and TTech. This is also a point of acerbic discussion for OLD Amarillo residents, but beside the point of the AISD discussion here.
I realize that "growth" - especially in a school - is not necessarily all "good", and perhaps a public High School can be dealt with administratively at a smaller scale, but it seems to me AISD has not looked beyond its borders in many years and now finds itself not only land locked, but struggling to deal with issues that, though statewide, are proving difficult to resolve.
[This message has been edited by Aggie1 (edited 4/17/2014 4:40p).]
[This message has been edited by Aggie1 (edited 4/25/2014 7:57p).]
