What's the situation with La Marque?

[TexasPanther2012]

I have been out of south east Texas for 4 years away at college, and I am returning to see La Marque on Hardin's schedule? When I was in high school they were a 4A power house, that was when there was only a 1-5A so im guessing you would say there were a former 5A powerhouse and now they are 3A?? I see something online about Texas City absorbing the district but why does Hardin's schedule still say La Marque? And where did all the athletes go? Are they still there or would they be playing for Texas City? 

[dillonpanthers]

It's still La Marque High School by name, but part of Texas City ISD. Texas City still has their high school too. Just like Houston, Katy, Conroe, etc have more than 1 high school .

 

I believe students had the option to stay at La Marque High School or transfer. 

[TexasPanther2012]

5 minutes ago, dillonpanthers said:

It's still La Marque High School by name, but part of Texas City ISD. Texas City still has their high school too. Just like Houston, Katy, Conroe, etc have more than 1 high school .

 

I believe students had the option to stay at La Marque High School or transfer. 

Oh okay, makes perfect sense, thanks. I'm wondering if the major athletes would have chosen to transfer to Texas City? 

[dillonpanthers]

That I'm really not sure of. There may be some others on here that can answer that. 

 

Just speculation, but I would think they'll still have a good group of athletes that stay. There will be some who everyone in their family has been a Cougar and that's what they want to be.  

[Bigdog]

16 hours ago, dillonpanthers said:

It's still La Marque High School by name, but part of Texas City ISD. Texas City still has their high school too. Just like Houston, Katy, Conroe, etc have more than 1 high school .

 

I believe students had the option to stay at La Marque High School or transfer. 

For now , yes.  But TCISD has the option to close LM after a couple of years if the test scores and the rest of the situation doesn't get any better.  I don't know if they will or not, but they would have to absorb LM into TC High School or build another school.

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[pakronos]

i live in lamarque, but from port arthur. since hurricane Ike, many people from south galveston co(galveston, hitchcock and lamarque) have moved more north. Dickinson seems to have taken all the talent. right after Ike, most headed for Manvel, Dawson  and some of the clear lake schools. i would say currently, Dickinson is the top dog in this area as of now.

[pakronos]

1 hour ago, bigdog said:

For now , yes.  But TCISD has the option to close LM after a couple of years if the test scores and the rest of the situation doesn't get any better.  I don't know if they will or not, but they would have to absorb LM into TC High School or build another school.

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they won't need to build another school. TC recently built a new high school about 5-6 years ago that's a good size. Lamarque high school only less than 450 students (more like in the 300's)TC has enough room in the school. the rest of the students can also be absorbed to the middle school and various elementary schools. if anything, maybe another elementary.

[dillonpanthers]

5 hours ago, pakronos said:

they won't need to build another school. TC recently built a new high school about 5-6 years ago that's a good size. Lamarque high school only less than 450 students (more like in the 300's)TC has enough room in the school. the rest of the students can also be absorbed to the middle school and various elementary schools. if anything, maybe another elementary.

Here's the problem with that. Texas City turned in an enrollment of 1.920 and La Marque 458 for this realignment. That means if Texas City absorbs them they would be at 2,370. The cut off for 6A this year was 2,149. So Texas City would become 6A. 

 

The Texas City administration might not have a problem with that. But athletics wise they could be setting themselves up for some hard times. Who knows what they'll do, but that would be pretty good incentive to not consolidate the schools. 

[pdawg119]

1 hour ago, dillonpanthers said:

Here's the problem with that. Texas City turned in an enrollment of 1.920 and La Marque 458 for this realignment. That means if Texas City absorbs them they would be at 2,370. The cut off for 6A this year was 2,149. So Texas City would become 6A. 

 

The Texas City administration might not have a problem with that. But athletics wise they could be setting themselves up for some hard times. Who knows what they'll do, but that would be pretty good incentive to not consolidate the schools. 

That would mean that Texas City would be with Dickinson and the Clear Creek ISD schools.

[AggiesAreWe]

1 hour ago, dillonpanthers said:

Here's the problem with that. Texas City turned in an enrollment of 1.920 and La Marque 458 for this realignment. That means if Texas City absorbs them they would be at 2,370. The cut off for 6A this year was 2,149. So Texas City would become 6A. 

 

The Texas City administration might not have a problem with that. But athletics wise they could be setting themselves up for some hard times. Who knows what they'll do, but that would be pretty good incentive to not consolidate the schools. 

The administration may not have a choice. TEA may make that decision for them.

[pakronos]

5 hours ago, dillonpanthers said:

Here's the problem with that. Texas City turned in an enrollment of 1.920 and La Marque 458 for this realignment. That means if Texas City absorbs them they would be at 2,370. The cut off for 6A this year was 2,149. So Texas City would become 6A. 

 

The Texas City administration might not have a problem with that. But athletics wise they could be setting themselves up for some hard times. Who knows what they'll do, but that would be pretty good incentive to not consolidate the schools. 

not really...when i was in high school, PA had three high schools with three classifications. the problem is we have been brainwashed into thinking a small school district have to have one high school. they can keep LM the way it is and still be absorbed. Texas City would have a 5a and a 3a...simple as that.

[pakronos]

1 minute ago, pakronos said:

not really...when i was in high school, PA had three high schools with three classifications. the problem is we have been brainwashed into thinking a small school district have to have one high school. they can keep LM the way it is and still be absorbed. Texas City would have a 5a and a 3a...simple as that.

yes even i contradicted my original statement. Just saying that was/is an option for them two years from now.

[RaiderRed30]

Texas City is in a tough position. Financially it does not make sense to have a 1800 student high school and a 400 student high school, but with the history of both La Marque and the rivalry it will more than likely not be a peaceful decision. La Marque has suffered with the academics and after the hurricane.

Right now if you consolidate Texas City and La Marque you have a small 6A school playing Dickinson and Clear Lake schools. I understand the concept of playing who is put in front of you, but the school and the community want to be successful in sports and UIL academics. In a district like that they would not be successful. Community pride comes from success in UIL in Texas. Then if you do consolidate what do you do with La Marque high school? Do you turn it into a 9th grade center or just sell it off? That could cause issues within the community, because I do not think La Marque people would like to see their high school and all of its history destroyed. I am not that familiar with the area, but that it is my guess.

They could vote to keep it the way it is if La Marque improves academically, but as I mentioned financially it would not make sense to keep the high school at their current population. Dallas ISD takes a lot of heat for having so many schools with a 3A district and a 6A district. It just does not work.

The third option that they could do is rezone in a year or two to have equal student population between the schools. As of now the two schools would be right on the cut line of 4A/5A. If they are both 4A then they would become dominant in district, but if they are both small 5As then it could be difficult in UIL just like if their was one 6A school. Once again, I only know of the rivalry from what I have read, but I do not know how Texas City folks would like having part of their town now zoned to La Marque. Especially the parents who grew up hating La Marque now watching their children playing for La Marque while still living in their hometown.

The final idea that could try is the Boerne method which is to have the schools close in population size but guarantee that the two schools are in separate classifications. While Boerne does it because they do not want a cross town rivalry, Texas City could do it because it would be the best option.

There are probably many more options, but nonetheless the fact is that is that the school board of Texas City will have to figure out a plan in the next couple of years and the plan will probably need to be presented to both communities so that the majority of Texas City and La Marque are accepting and their is no ill will.

[MossHill]

As a HS soph watching the Cougars take down Dakari Pearsons Broncos in the Astrodome (less than 20 yrs ago), to now being in a district with Hardin is probably the oddest thing in HS football I have come to know. Like, how ????? Welp, we shall see how they perform at the 3a level. sMh

[pakronos]

as far as the physical building, it is being used as half high school and half middle school, so there is no waste of money there. as far as rezoning, think of tc and lm like pn-g and Nederland. there is a set of tracks that separate the two. west texas city sit across the street from LM. the best option is to see if the high school in LM continues to decrease. if it does, it would make sense just to have the remaining 200 or so kids attend the TC campus. FORGET ABOUT SPORTS!!! if it puts them lplaying 6a so be it. education first. Texas City H.S. is on the far side of the city...about 5-9 miles from LM school.

[dillonpanthers]

16 hours ago, AggiesAreWe said:

The administration may not have a choice. TEA may make that decision for them.

I believe they would always have the choice if they want one high school or 2. I don't think the UIL can decide that if the district has the money to fund it. 

[dillonpanthers]

12 hours ago, pakronos said:

not really...when i was in high school, PA had three high schools with three classifications. the problem is we have been brainwashed into thinking a small school district have to have one high school. they can keep LM the way it is and still be absorbed. Texas City would have a 5a and a 3a...simple as that.

My comment wasn't saying that what they will do. It was in reply to the person above me saying they could add in the La Marque students to Texas City High School and carry on as usual. My point was they cant, it raises their classification. 

[AggiesAreWe]

21 minutes ago, dillonpanthers said:

I believe they would always have the choice if they want one high school or 2. I don't think the UIL can decide that if the district has the money to fund it. 

I never said anything about UIL.

TEA and UIL are two separate entities. UIL has no say in the matter.

[Cougar14.2]

12 hours ago, RaiderRed30 said:

Texas City is in a tough position. Financially it does not make sense to have a 1800 student high school and a 400 student high school, but with the history of both La Marque and the rivalry it will more than likely not be a peaceful decision. La Marque has suffered with the academics and after the hurricane.

Right now if you consolidate Texas City and La Marque you have a small 6A school playing Dickinson and Clear Lake schools. I understand the concept of playing who is put in front of you, but the school and the community want to be successful in sports and UIL academics. In a district like that they would not be successful. Community pride comes from success in UIL in Texas. Then if you do consolidate what do you do with La Marque high school? Do you turn it into a 9th grade center or just sell it off? That could cause issues within the community, because I do not think La Marque people would like to see their high school and all of its history destroyed. I am not that familiar with the area, but that it is my guess.

They could vote to keep it the way it is if La Marque improves academically, but as I mentioned financially it would not make sense to keep the high school at their current population. Dallas ISD takes a lot of heat for having so many schools with a 3A district and a 6A district. It just does not work.

The third option that they could do is rezone in a year or two to have equal student population between the schools. As of now the two schools would be right on the cut line of 4A/5A. If they are both 4A then they would become dominant in district, but if they are both small 5As then it could be difficult in UIL just like if their was one 6A school. Once again, I only know of the rivalry from what I have read, but I do not know how Texas City folks would like having part of their town now zoned to La Marque. Especially the parents who grew up hating La Marque now watching their children playing for La Marque while still living in their hometown.

The final idea that could try is the Boerne method which is to have the schools close in population size but guarantee that the two schools are in separate classifications. While Boerne does it because they do not want a cross town rivalry, Texas City could do it because it would be the best option.

There are probably many more options, but nonetheless the fact is that is that the school board of Texas City will have to figure out a plan in the next couple of years and the plan will probably need to be presented to both communities so that the majority of Texas City and La Marque are accepting and their is no ill will.

You do realize if they combine TC and LaMarque they'll have about 300 more kids than Friendswood does which made it to the third round playing out of that same district last year? They would only be about 50 students shy of the enrollment last year's district champion Clear Creek currently has.  They would have the second best collection of athletes in that entire district. If you added La Marque's basketball team to TC's you probably have a squad that will compete for a district championship there too. The VERY last thing that would happen if you combined those two schools is that they would struggle to compete in sports, especially in the district they would be put in. Prime example is TC barely losing the district championship last year to Ridge Point, Ridge Point moved up to 6A and is currently the favorite to win the Fort Bend district in their first year there. Those two schools being combined would have beaten Ridge Point last year, and they would be favored to win the district that sends more kids to FBS schools than most likely any other in Texas.     

[pakronos]

29 minutes ago, dillonpanthers said:

My comment wasn't saying that what they will do. It was in reply to the person above me saying they could add in the La Marque students to Texas City High School and carry on as usual. My point was they cant, it raises their classification. 

it would raise it in two years. who knows, UIL might move the numbers again also. they can get a 1000 students right now, they still going to be 5a for two years.

[dillonpanthers]

6 hours ago, AggiesAreWe said:

I never said anything about UIL.

TEA and UIL are two separate entities. UIL has no say in the matter.

You're right. My post should say TEA. Still don't think TEA can tell a district they have to combine to one high school if they have the means to run 2. 

[dillonpanthers]

6 hours ago, pakronos said:

it would raise it in two years. who knows, UIL might move the numbers again also. they can get a 1000 students right now, they still going to be 5a for two years.

You're right, it could change, but probably won't vary that much. But there is a lot of talk right now about 6 and 5A being split into divisions like the smaller classifications. So that would change a lot. 

[pakronos]

IMO, with all the growth still pushing southward down 45, I think LM high school is going to kill itself off. every year it gets smaller and smaller while new schools and communities are being built 30 minutes away. would not surprise me if the school has 100-200 kids in it come next realignment.

[dillonpanthers]

5 hours ago, pakronos said:

IMO, with all the growth still pushing southward down 45, I think LM high school is going to kill itself off. every year it gets smaller and smaller while new schools and communities are being built 30 minutes away. would not surprise me if the school has 100-200 kids in it come next realignment.

It very well may. If that's the case they would need to just consolidate the schools. Texas City ISD would probably lose money in the overhead of keeping the building open/staffing it.