César E. Chávez High School is a secondary school located at 8501 Howard Drive in the Allendale neighborhood in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

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. The school is part of the

Houston Independent School District The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest Public school (government funded), public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the ci ...

, and serves grades nine through twelve. Chavez serves several areas outside the 610 Loop in southeast Houston, including the neighborhoods of Glenbrook Valley, Gulf Freeway Oaks, and Park Place. Chavez High School serves a mainly Hispanic population located near

Hobby Airport William P. Hobby Airport —colloquially referred to as Houston Hobby or other short names—is an international airport in Houston, Texas, located from downtown Houston. Hobby is Houston's oldest commercial airport, and was its primary airpor ...

. The school is named for civil rights activist

Cesar E. Chavez Cesario Estrada Chavez (; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta and lesser known Gilbert Padilla, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), whi ...

. HISD's Environmental Science magnet program is offered at Chavez. The school's principal (as of June 2019) is Dr. Luis Landa. The "Lobo" (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

for "wolf") is the school's official mascot. The school became an

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...

school which started offering Diploma Programme classes in 2017-2018.

History

By 1991 the East End area schools Austin High School and Milby High School had among the largest enrollments in Texas. In December of that year school district trustees voted to construct a new high school in September 1995 instead of 1997 due to the severity of overcrowding. By 1997 the new high school had not yet been constructed; area community leaders and parents anticipated the construction of Chávez as Austin and Milby were still overcrowded. In the fall of 2000, Chávez opened and took most of Milby's traditional neighborhoods. In turn Milby absorbed some students from Austin. A group called the Unidos Contra Environmental Racism (UCER) protested the school's proximity to many chemical plants before it was opened; the school is less than from plants owned by Texas Petroleum, Denka Chemical, USS Chemical, and Goodyear Chemical. Juan Parras, the leader of the UCER group, stated that the school would take the brunt of a chemical leak. Heather Browne, a spokesperson for Houston ISD, stated that the Chavez site was tested for environmental hazards in the air and soil in 1992 and 1996; no problems were found in the tests. Browne also stated that one park, three public swimming pools, the City Hall of South Houston, and one golf course are within of Chavez. In 2007, an Associated Press/

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

study referred to Chávez as a "dropout factory" where at least 40% of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year. During that year 21% of high school age children zoned to Chávez chose to attend a different Houston ISD school. In 2014 HISD superintendent Terry Grier stated that Chávez should reduce its enrollment to around 3,000 students.

Operations

Students at Chávez use the former Kay Elementary School in

Harrisburg Harrisburg ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat, seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50, ...

as a " land lab".

Demographics

For the 2022-23 school year: * African American: 7.2% * Hispanic: 87.9% * White: 1.2% * American Indian: 0.1% * Asian: 3.2% * Pacific Islander: 0.1% * Two or More Races: 0.2% * Economically Disadvantaged: 93.2% As of 2009 Chávez's enrollment mostly consists of low income Hispanic and Latino students.

AP Courses Offered at Chávez

*AP World History *AP United States History *AP English Language and Composition *AP English Literature *AP Spanish Language *AP Spanish Literature *AP Economics *AP United States Government *AP Calculus AB *AP Calculus BC *AP Chemistry *AP Physics *AP European History *AP Biology *AP Environmental Science *AP Computer Science

Athletics and Arts

Chavez fields eighteen varsity teams in the University Interscholastic League's Region III, District 20-5A with the Houston Independent School District's largest high schools. The campus has a field house that includes an athletic training room, weight room, team meeting rooms, coaches' offices, coaches and officials' lockers, and large locker room areas for male and female athletes. Other campus athletic facilities include an 8-lane all-weather track, 4 tennis courts, an outdoor basketball court, a practice gymnasium, basketball court, secondary weight room, natatorium with olympic-sized competition pool, football, baseball, softball, soccer fields, and a cross country running course over wooded terrain. Varsity sports offered at the school include: *Cross Country (boys, girls) *Volleyball (girls) *Football (boys) *Soccer (boys, girls) *Baseball (boys) *Softball (girls) *Basketball (boys, girls) *Wrestling (boys, girls) *Golf (boys, girls) *Tennis (boys, girls) *Track & Field (boys, girls) Chavez High School has a band and orchestra program, as well a choir and piano class. Chavez also has a Theatre program that consists of acting, musical theatre, and tech. Also, Army JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps).

In media

In the 2011 novel '' What Can't Wait'', the sports team of the Houston high school attended by the main character is the "Loyal Lobos".Pérez,

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

br>PT15
(First page of Chapter 2): "Over the weekend, the sign for our high school got vandalized again. Supposedly we're the Loyal Lobos, .. Chávez High's real-life mascot is the "Lobos", and the novel's author, Ashley Hope Pérez, once worked as a teacher at Chávez.A Q&A with Ashley Hope Pérez, Author of “What Can’t Wait”
().

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. February 4, 2011. Retrieved on November 7, 2015. In the acknowledgements section Pérez thanked the students of Chávez High.Pérez,

br>PT192
(Acknowledgements): "This book would not exist without the many remarkable students I taught at Chávez High School"

Feeder pattern

Elementary schools that feed into Chavez Chávez High School Attendance Zone
," ''

'' include: *Bonner *Park Place *Patterson * Cornelius (partial) *Lewis (partial)Lewis Elementary Attendance Zone
," ''

'' *Rucker (partial) *Sanchez (partial) Middle schools that feed into Chavez include: *Ortiz *Deady (partial) *Stevenson (partial) Stevenson Middle Attendance Zone
," ''

Notable alumni

* Juan Díaz -

World Boxing Association The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is an international professional boxing organization based in Panama. The WBA awards its world championship title at the professional level. Founded ...

's Lightweight Champion *

Michael Brockers Michael Seth Brockers (born December 21, 1990) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the LSU Tigers football, LSU T ...

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that typically lines up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the Guard (American football), offensive guards; however, he may also line up opposite one of the offensive Tackle (gridir ...

* Vanessa Guillén - US Army soldier who was killed by another soldier at

Fort Hood Fort Cavazos is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. The post is currently named after Gen. Richard E. Cavazos, a native Texan and the US Army’s first Hispanic four-star general. The post is located halfway between Austi ...

on April 22, 2020

References

External links

Chavez High School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chavez High School (Houston) Educational institutions established in 2000 Houston Independent School District high schools Magnet schools in Houston Public high schools in Houston International Baccalaureate schools in Texas 2000 establishments in Texas