Forest Brook High School
The former campus of North Forest High School, formerly Forest Brook High School and now Forest Brook Middle School
Location
Map
7525 Tidwell Road
Houston, TX 77016

United States
Coordinates29°51′01″N 95°17′38″W / 29.850318°N 95.293928°W / 29.850318; -95.293928
Information
TypeComprehensive Public High School
School districtNorth Forest Independent School District
CEEB code443377
Grades9–12
Websiteclassroom.northforestschools.org/webs/forestbrook/

Forest Brook High School was a high school located at 7525 Tidwell Road in Houston, Texas, United States. Serving grades 9 through 12, Forest Brook was a part of the North Forest Independent School District. It is now the site of Forest Brook Middle School, now under the control of the Houston Independent School District.

A brook runs through the campus.[1]

History

Forest Brook was built in 1972[2] and opened on August 2, 1972.[1] It was intended to accommodate black students after the district was required by the state to integrate.[citation needed]

In June 2001 Tropical Storm Allison damaged Forest Brook High School and NFISD officials temporarily closed the school. District officials wanted to put the children on the campus of M. B. Smiley High School. NFISD residents protested the plan. Some argued that because Forest Brook and Smiley were rivals, putting the students on the same campus would lead to incidents. On July 19, 2001 district officials announced that they would move Forest Brook students to B. C. Elmore Middle School until Forest Brook was repaired.[3]

During the 2001–2002 school year, Forest Brook had 1,206 students. It had a capacity of 2,750 students. This gave the school a 44% classroom usage rate.[4]

On July 20, 2007, some teenagers vandalized the school with a water hose.[5][6] The water was left on for several hours, causing part of the floor to collapse. The library and a number of rooms and hallways were damaged.[5]

After the vandalism of Forest Brook High School, North Forest ISD decided to merge Forest Brook's population into M. B. Smiley High School for at least four months, until Forest Brook was repaired. Some parents and observers criticized the decision, fearing territorial rivalries would cause tension between Forest Brook and Smiley students.[7][8] Two former students from Forest Brook were later arrested. One, a pitcher and outfielder for the school baseball team who was set to attend Texas College, was charged with criminal mischief in excess of $250,000, a first-degree felony, and was placed on a $999,999 bail. State District Judge Denise Collins reduced the bail to $50,000.[9] The other was his 16-year-old brother.[10] Forest Brook re-opened in the spring.

Forest Brook Middle School

The Dallas Morning News wrote a July 21, 2007 article explaining cheating at Forest Brook. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) declared the school to have had no cheating based on scores from 2006 and earlier. When TEA monitors were placed at Forest Brook, test scores decreased.[11]

In 2007 Johns Hopkins University referred to Forest Brook as a "dropout factory" where at least 40 percent of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.[12]

In March 2008 North Forest ISD announced that it would consolidate its two high schools.[13][14] The new school, located on the Forest Brook location, was named North Forest High School.[15] In September of that year Hurricane Ike hit Houston and Forest Brook received damage. Therefore, the school was relocated to the former Smiley campus[16] The former FBHS campus is now used as Forest Brook Middle School.[17][18]

Campus

The three-story academic building is divided by a brook from the cafeteria and the Edgar W. Thomas Activity center. The Mark Anthony Wilkins Pavilion, including the basketball gymnasium, weight rooms, and locker rooms has a pond in front.

The campus has baseball fields, an athletic running track, a football field, tennis courts, student and faculty parking lots. The student parking lot doubled as the band practice field in the evenings after classes.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ^ a b "Home page." Forest Brook High School. November 25, 2005. Retrieved on November 14, 2011.
  2. ^ "Window on State Government--NFISD Texas School Performance Review, Chapter 5". Texas Education Agency. Archived from the original on October 15, 2002.
  3. ^ Stanton, Robert. "WEATHERING THE STORM / North Forest ISD perseveres through difficult year." Houston Chronicle. Thursday December 27, 2001. ThisWeek 1. Retrieved on July 15, 2011.
  4. ^ "Chapter 5 FACILITIES USE AND MANAGEMENT NORTH FOREST INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT Archived 2012-07-21 at the Wayback Machine." Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Retrieved on November 21, 2011.
  5. ^ a b "Police search for school vandals." KTRK-TV. Friday July 20, 2007. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  6. ^ Tolson, Mike. "Damage forces students to share campus / Act of vandals is latest headache for North Forest School District." Houston Chronicle. Saturday July 21, 2007. B2. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  7. ^ Arenas, Vicente. "Star athlete accused of Forest Brook High vandalism Archived 2007-08-13 at the Wayback Machine." KHOU-TV. Wednesday August 8, 2007. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  8. ^ Nguyen, Chau. "Temporary school merger just doesn't add up for some in North Forest ISD Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine." KHOU-TV. Saturday July 28, 2007. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  9. ^ Turner, Allen and Dale Lezon. "Accused vandal's mom asks community to forgive teen Archived 2012-10-16 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Chronicle. Thursday August 9, 2007. B3. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  10. ^ Arenas, Vicente. "Ex-Forest Brook pitcher, brother accused of vandalism Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine." KHOU-TV. Wednesday August 8, 2007. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  11. ^ Benton, Joshua. "Monitors came, TAKS scores plummeted Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine." The Dallas Morning News. Saturday July 21, 2007. Retrieved on August 16, 2009. Alternate link
  12. ^ Scharrer, Gary. "Report points to 'dropout factories' Archived 2007-11-02 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Chronicle. October 31, 2007. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  13. ^ Mellon, Ericka. "North Forest votes to merge schools Archived 2008-03-25 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Chronicle. Sunday March 16, 2008. B1 MetFront. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  14. ^ KHOU.com staff. "North Forest ISD to merge Smiley, Forest Brook High; Tidwell, Hillard Elementary Archived 2008-04-14 at the Wayback Machine." KHOU-TV. Sunday March 16, 2008. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  15. ^ Mellon, Ericka. "North Forest picks name for merged school / Forest Brook, Smiley students now North Forest High Bulldogs Archived 2017-05-19 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Chronicle. Tuesday May 20, 2008. B2. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  16. ^ Home page Archived 2008-09-26 at the Wayback Machine. North Forest High School. Retrieved on November 22, 2008.
  17. ^ "Directory of Schools." North Forest Independent School District. Retrieved on July 15, 2011. "Forest Brook High School 7525 Tidwell Road Houston, Texas 77016"
  18. ^ "Home Archived 2011-10-05 at the Wayback Machine." Forest Brook Middle School. Retrieved on July 15, 2011. "Forest Brook Middle School | 7525 Tidwell Rd. | Houston, TX 77028"
  19. ^ a b "Forest Brook HS (Houston, TX) Baseball Players". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g "Forest Brook Alumni Pro Stats". Pro Football Reference. Archived from the original on November 1, 2016. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  21. ^ D, Willie (August 21, 2014). "I'm Hypnotized by My Ex's Booty. Help!". Houston Press. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 16, 2014.

External links

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