The Houston Unbiased College District’s determination to shut Burrus Elementary College, amongst 11 different colleges, on the finish of the 2025-2026 college yr has sparked intense opposition in Independence Heights, the place residents say closing the historic campus erases a cornerstone of Houston’s Black historical past.
Why is Burrus ES closing?
The HISD Board of Managers accepted the closures unanimously, citing declining enrollment and deteriorating amenities throughout the district. Superintendent Mike Miles mentioned many campuses are working far beneath capability, making it tough for the district to take care of buildings and packages.
“Enrollment has declined even sooner than after the intervention, nevertheless it has nonetheless been declining,” Miles mentioned, pointing to Texas Training Company information displaying Houston ranks fifth amongst main city districts in enrollment loss since 2018.
HISD leaders additionally level to infrastructure challenges. Many campuses face main restore wants, and rebuilding or renovating colleges can price hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. Rebuilding a single elementary college is estimated at $75 million, whereas a full renovation is estimated at $40 million. Miles mentioned the district can’t proceed to function severely under-enrolled campuses with main structural issues.
The enrollment and demographic reviews for Burrus Elementary reveal a faculty experiencing each underutilization and important scholar mobility.
The campus presently enrolls 198 college students, regardless of a capability of 570, which means the constructing is working at 34.7% of its capability.
The attendance sample reveals that 128 college students each dwell within the attendance zone and attend Burrus, whereas 264 college students dwell throughout the college’s zone, suggesting that many neighborhood households are selecting different campuses.
The college has seen 136 transfers out to different HISD campuses and a further 44 transfers to different college districts or constitution colleges, in contrast with 70 transfers into the varsity from different HISD campuses.
The demographic profile of Burrus Elementary highlights the socioeconomic and racial traits of the scholar inhabitants.
Almost 240 of the 264 college students within the zone are economically deprived.
The scholar physique can be closely composed of Black and Hispanic college students, with 108 Black college students and 143 Hispanic college students dwelling within the zone.
The college additionally serves 27 college students receiving particular schooling providers, 35 emergent bilingual college students, and 6 unhoused college students.
For greater than a century, Burrus Elementary has served as a cornerstone of the neighborhood.
Within the early 1900s, because the neighborhood grew, residents established the Independence Heights College in 1911 with assist from Harris County. The college expanded over time and, in 1928, moved into a brand new constructing and was renamed after James D. Burrus, a previously enslaved Black educator.
For households in Independence Heights, Texas’ first included Black municipality, the choice to shut Burrus Elementary has been deeply private.
The battle can be removed from over. The Independence Heights Redevelopment Council is urging households of the varsity to file complaints, citing a scarcity of significant neighborhood engagement, disproportionate impression on college students, and procedural violations.
Mardie Paige, president of Tremendous Neighborhood 13 in Independence Heights, mentioned Burrus was one of many few colleges out there to Black college students in Houston.
“I used to be part of this neighborhood when Burrus was the one college that may settle for Black college students. My sister couldn’t go anyplace in Houston however to Burrus. Burrus’s closing just isn’t solely detrimental to the scholars who’re there now, nevertheless it’s detrimental to the entire neighborhood.”
Mardie Paige, president of Tremendous Neighborhood 13 in Independence Heights
“I used to be part of this neighborhood when Burrus was the one college that may settle for Black college students,” Paige mentioned. “My sister couldn’t go anyplace in Houston however to Burrus. Burrus’s closing just isn’t solely detrimental to the scholars who’re there now, nevertheless it’s detrimental to the entire neighborhood.”
For Paige, the varsity’s significance extends far past the scholars presently enrolled.
“Once you take away the varsity, you take away the neighborhood,” she mentioned. “You take away the historical past of the neighborhood. The historical past is now gone.”
State Rep. Charlene Ward Johnson, whose home district contains the campus, urged HISD’s state-appointed board of managers to rethink their determination earlier than they voted to shut the varsity.
“Burrus Elementary has maintained the standing of an A-rated campus and produced excellent graduates,” Ward Johnson mentioned. “Voting to shut the historic Burrus Elementary, a long-standing pillar of that neighborhood,…throughout Black Historical past Month is a slap within the face and a direct assault on the Black neighborhood.”
Many residents say the district’s determination got here with little warning.
Tonya Wells, govt director of the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council, mentioned the neighborhood discovered in regards to the proposal two weeks earlier than the board vote.
“They haven’t tried to have interaction locally in any respect,” Wells mentioned. “It [closure] can displace some households…who don’t have transportation. It’s eradicating a historic cornerstone in our neighborhood.”
Mother and father and grandparents with ties to the varsity say the impression goes past logistics.
Mary Kennerson mentioned Burrus has educated generations of her household.
“This place has been there a very long time. Tearing it down slowly is simply unhappy,” Kenerson mentioned.
Cailin Kenerson, an aunt and cousin to 4 Burrus ES college students, mentioned many college students presently stroll to the campus, and shutting it, she worries, will create new security challenges, citing “unreliable” bus transportation.
One other Kennerson member of the family, Xavier, whose little one attends college, mentioned he was “upset” in regards to the closure determination, which got here “out of nowhere.”
Former Burrus librarian Brandy Dada additionally spoke out in opposition to the closure, describing the campus as a spot that nurtured generations of scholars.
“I took nice satisfaction in being a part of such a historic college and having the ability to present literacy alternatives to my college students,” Dada mentioned. “I seen that the historic colleges in Rice and West View neighborhoods usually are not up for closure. If sitting on this board is a part of a profession or political agenda…you’re simply one other footnote in a protracted historical past of oppression and systemic racism.”
Group members argue that as an alternative of closing the campus, the district ought to put money into it.
Billy Williams, a longtime resident, mentioned the closure is “blatant disrespect” towards the neighborhood.
“If they might simply put money into our neighborhood, in our faculty, we might transfer ahead in a really constructive means,” Williams mentioned.
District officers say they’re working to attenuate disruption because the transition unfolds and have pledged transportation choices and outreach to households within the coming months.
