HPISD Student Enrollment Increased 21% Past 15 Years

As of October 2014, HPISD's enrollment reached 7,092 - a record high since the district was formed in 1914. In the last 15 years, the district has seen a rise in enrollment by 1,250 students, a 21 percent increase. According to a demographic study, the enrollment numbers are expected to grow in the coming years. Please use the following links to learn more about the district's increased enrollment and its plans to accommodate the growth while preserving its legacy of academic excellence.

HPISD Calendar 2015

The HPISD School Board approved the 2015-16 school year calendars at last night's meeting.

Both calendars have the same holidays, start date and end date. K-8 students will have four grading periods. Students in grades 9-12 wll have six grading periods, with students finishing midterm exams before the winter holiday. 

Click here to view the K-8 calendar.
Click here to view the 9-12 calendar. 

Thanks to everyone who provided thoughtful feedback.
 
Please note that the Texas Education Agency frequently makes changes to its testing dates, so HPISD and other districts across Texas have drafted their calendars based on the preliminary testing schedule. If we have to make adjustments based on changes to the state's testing schedule, we will let you know right away.

Embracing the Middle School Years

Join us for an engaging discussion with Andy Kerckhoff

Author of Critical Connection and the blog Growing Up Well

Middle school teacher, coach, and parent. Baylor graduate.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Highland Park Middle School Auditorium

12:00 – 1:30 pm

Early adolescents are trying desperately to understand themselves, their world, and where they can fit in successfully and happily. It is a time of great turmoil for some, while for others it is a time of great excitement and wonder. For most, it is both an exciting adventure entering a larger world and a terribly anxious time of uncertainty.  Middle school is a time of tremendous change, and parenting early adolescents is often the most daunting challenge families will face. No matter how hard it gets, do not disengage. Do something—anything—to connect with and guide your child today. Parenting is an adventure of the greatest significance. It is your legacy.

Existing Home Sales, Prices Up in December

Existing single-family home sales and prices in Texas were up last month from a year ago, according to the latest Multiple Listing Service data compiled by the Real Estate Center. More than 23,300 homes were sold in December compared with 20,775 a year ago — a 12 percent jump. Nearly 284,650 homes were sold in Texas last year, data showed. The median price was up 9 percent, from $175,800 to $191,900. Housing inventory was at 3.1 months, well below the 6.5 months the Center considers a balanced market. Housing data for most Texas markets is available on the Center's website.

The Dallas Housing Market Is Still Nuts - Dallas Observer

Marcia Todd

You will never afford this.

Maybe you moved here from some expensive city on the coast, lured by a job offer and the cheap rent. An apartment broker directed you to a new building with a really pretentious name, like, say, "Celebrity." But after spending a few months renting a cramped, thin-walled unit inside Celebrity, watching drunk people urinate in your luxury community pool, it becomes clear that renting in Dallas really isn't that great of a deal. Time to buy a house, right?

"The only thing that's being built is apartments. Apartment rents are ridiculously high," says Matt Watson, a Dallas real estate agent who works with buyers and sellers in Uptown and Oak Lawn. Facing those "ridiculously high" rents, Watson says people decide to buy as the logical next time. Then they get a bad surprise: all the other people exactly like them, also wanting to buy a house, competing for few available houses. "We're literally at more than a 10-year-low at inventory," Watson says.

See also: If You Make Less Than $28 an Hour, You Can't Afford Median Rent In Dallas, Says Zillow

In other words, the housing market here is still insane. Dallas Morning News' real estate reporter Steve Brown recently analyzed home prices and now has the exact percentagesshowing just how insane it's gotten. Average prices rose 12 percent from 2013 in 46 different areas, the News found, also citing the lack of supply as a major factor. The neighborhoods with the biggest price jumps are as Wilmer-Huchins, Southeast Dallas, Lancaster and Oak Cliff.

What this means for you, poor Dallas resident, is you will not live in a home anytime soon, unless you already own a home, in which case you'll have no problem selling it, but then end up homeless when you can't buy a new home. As is the case with most things in life, this problem will go away if you get more money. So keep your head up and go find some money, somewhere.

Meanwhile, the 2014 median rent here was a depressing $1,423.

By Amy Silverstein 

Mapped: household income, down to the neighborhood, across all of Texas

Our journey through the most-recent data released by the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey continues with a look at median household income across all of Texas.

Readers may remember Austin Business Journal's most-recent Texas-wide map, which examined how median home value estimates are changing in each Census tract throughout the Lone Star state.

But this map takes a more granular approach by examining median household income by Census block group. Block groups are smaller than Census tracts, which typically contain between two to four block groups. According to the Census Bureau, each block group has between 250 and 550 households, and Census guidelines state the ideal size of a block group is 400 households. In terms of sample size, it's one of the more uniform demographic samples produced by the Census Bureau.

With samples that small, block-group-level data can provide particularly valuable, neighborhood-scale business intelligence for a number of industries such as real estate and marketing.

This map, embedded below the article, colors each of Texas 15,811 Census block groups from light green to dark green based on median household income as recorded by the American Community Survey's Five-Year Estimates data series for 2013, released this past December. The darker the green, the higher the median household income is. Clicking within a block group will pop open a window showing its median household income statistics.

If you're viewing this article on a smartphone, you can see the map by clicking the "view full page" link below the article.

Another note about the map: don't zoom out too far. Due to the sheer number of block groups involved, Google – which powers these maps – will not render smaller block groups at certain, distant zoom levels. If this happens to you, just zoom in a bit and the map will fill back in. (Story continued on next page)

The average median annual household income for all census block groups across Texas is roughly $55,200.

It's hard to say, specifically, which block group has the highest or lowest median household income on this map. The American Community Survey caps its median household income estimates at $250,000 or more on the high end, and $2,500 or less on the low end. There's only one block group that reaches the low end of that scale, Block Group 1 in Waco, immediately adjacent to Baylor University. On the far distant side of that spectrum are a set of 30 block groups where the Census statisticians found median annual incomes of $250,000 or more.

The lion's share of those are scattered around Dallas and Houston, which many high-profile oil, gas and energy executives call home. Houston, in particular, has an obvious belt of suburban affluence that almost completely encircles a central city that, for the most part, lives on much more modest annual household earnings, with the significant exception being the ultra-wealthy areas immediately west of downtown Houston. And while Houston has a belt of affluence, Dallas could be said to have an affluence hat, with that city's best-heeled neighborhoods clustered in the suburbs north of downtown.

Austin and San Antonio have their own pockets of affluence as well, particularly west of I-35. The interstate serves as a de facto dividing line between the more and less affluent that stretches all the way from Pflugerville to downtown San Antonio.

Michael Theis is the Austin Business Journal's digital editor.

5 HPHS students honored as All-State musicians

After months of competitions, rehearsals and lessons, five HPHS students have earned the highest musical honor a student can receive in the State of Texas.  Bennett Robinson, Kathryn Davidson, Lizzy Seay and Avery Davis have been named to the Texas Music Educators Association's All-State Choir, and senior Katelin Adams has been named to the TMEA All-State Band. This is Adams' third consecutive year as an All-State musician.    The students will participate in three days of rehearsals and concerts directed by nationally recognized conductors during the annual state TMEA Clinic/Convention,  Feb. 11-14 in San Antonio. They will conclude the convention by performing in concert before an audience of thousands.