Symphony
Founded in 1913, the Houston Symphony maintains an internationally acclaimed orchestra of 98 musicians. It presents a full season of concerts in Jones Hall, free summer concerts in Miller Theatre, and concerts on tour. Its musicians accompany most Houston Grand Opera performances, and are active locally in music education and chamber music.

Other symphony ensembles include Houston Youth Symphony and the orchestras of Houston Baptist University, Rice University, Texas Southern University, and the University of Houston.

Opera
Houston Grand Opera, founded in 1955, is one of the nation's five largest opera companies. It is recognized internationally for the balance between contemporary works and classics in its standard repertoire. HGO will present seven main stage productions during its 1999-2000 season.

HGO's Houston Opera Studio, a major international apprenticeship center, bridges the gap between university training and professional career. HGO also conducts educational programs with local schools. To reach new audiences, HGO established Opera New World with a $1 million NEA grant to develop programming appealing to Houston's diverse cultures.

Theatre Under The Stars offers lavish musicals in free summer productions and in a winter subscription season. It also operates the Humphrey's School.

Other major musical groups include The American Pops Orchestra, J.S. Bach Society, Da Camera Society, Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston, Greater Houston Chorus, Houston Friends of Music, Houston Harpsichord Society, and Houston Masterworks Chorus.

Theater
Houston is one of the nation's foremost centers of live dramatic and musical theater. The famed Alley Theatre, founded in 1947, is one of the country's three oldest resident theaters. Its facility features an 824-seat thrust main theater and a 296-seat arena theater. The Alley stages an extended professional season, typically mounting 12 or 13 major productions per year. Stages Repertory Theatre offers southwestern and world premieres, experimental productions of classic works, and revivals of American masterpieces. Notable nonequity professional companies include Main Street Theater, A.D. Players, Actors Theatre, Actors Workshop, Texas Mime Theatre, Theatre LaB, and The Ensemble, one of the nation's most respected black theaters. Area universities and the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts present regular theatrical programming. A summer Shakespeare Festival, produced by the University of Houston and performed in English and Spanish, is held annually in Miller Theatre.

Dance
Houston Ballet, founded in 1955 and established as a professional company in 1969, presents a season of local and touring performances, and enjoys critical acclaim on international tours. Its Ballet Academy offers classes for children and adults.

Professional Sports
Houston's professional teams include: the Astros (National Baseball League, Astrodome); Rockets (National Basketball Assn. '94 and '95 champions, The Summit); Aeros (International Hockey League, The Summit); Comets (Women's National Basketball Association, The Summit) and Hotshots (Continental Indoor Soccer League, The Summit).

Collegiate Sports
Houston collegiate teams compete in most major sports--Rice in the Western Athletic Conference and the University of Houston in Conference USA, Texas Southern in the Southwest Athletic Conference, and Houston Baptist in the NAIA.

Other Recreational Activities
The Houston PMSA has over 100 golf courses, including Tour 18, a public course that replicates 18 of the nation's most famous golf holes.

Racing facilities include Sam Houston Race Park (Class 1 thoroughbred/quarter horse racing), opened Apr. 1994, and Gulf Greyhound Park, opened Nov. 1992.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the world's largest livestock show and richest regular-season rodeo, is presented annually in February. Begun in 1932, this charitable event moved to the Astrodome complex in 1966.

Parks
Houston's 307 municipal parks and 122 open spaces encompass 20,362 land acres and 12,236 water-covered acres and include:

• Lake Houston
• Seven 18-hole golf courses
• 45 swimming pools (6 Olympic-sized)
• Three tennis centers (60 total courts)
• 150 more neighborhood tennis courts
• 197 baseball/softball fields
• 86 football/soccer/rugby fields
• 144 practice backstops
• 66 covered, 96 open air basketball courts
• 38.4 miles of nature or hike and bike trails
• 54 community recreation centers
• 249 playgrounds

Major City of Houston parks include:

Cullen Park, at 10,534 acres one of the largest U.S. municipal parks--Alkek Velodrome (one of 19 in the U.S.), 7 game fields, hike and bike trails, picnic areas

Hermann Park--Houston Zoological Gardens (Wortham World of Primates, Children's Zoo, Brown Education Center), Houston Garden Center, Museum of Natural History (IMAX Theatre, planetarium), Miller Outdoor Theatre (free musicals and concerts), Japanese Garden, 18-hole golf course, 2 miniature golf courses, paddle boats, hike and bike trail

Memorial Park--1,431 acres; Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, golf course, tennis center, driving range, three-mile jogging trail, playing fields

Eisenhower Park, on the San Jacinto River below Lake Houston Dam--fishing (stocked with rainbow trout)

Keith-Weiss Park, south of IAH--tennis courts, five game fields, picnic areas; a large portion to be retained in natural state

Herman Brown Park--tennis courts, basketball, eight playing fields, hiking trail

Major downtown parks include:

Sam Houston Park, the City's first, acquired in 1899 (tours of seven restored historical buildings; Texas Museum, Harris County Heritage Society)

Buffalo Bayou Park--covers 120 acres along Buffalo Bayou west of downtown

Harris County maintains 105 parks containing 19,595 acres and offering 28 miles of hike and bike trails. Since 1980, Harris County has contributed over $21 million for acquisition and development of county parks.

Three other Harris County cities--Pasadena, Baytown, Bellaire--offer park systems with 1,290 acres in 95 parks, 12 swimming pools, 12 recreation buildings, and many other facilities.

San Jacinto State Park, three miles east of Pasadena, features the San Jacinto Monument--taller than the Washington Monument--and an historical museum adjacent to the Battleship Texas.

Economy
Houston's economy was historically based in agriculture and then in oil and gas exploration and production. Today, Houston's economy is more diverse with grow industries in health care services, electronics, and engineering/design services leading the growth.

Many of Houston's new jobs are white-collar. The expansion that began in 1987 has created more than 200,000 new jobs in medical and professional services--areas that encompass much of the growth of applied technology. These jobs represent more than half of the net gain in Houston's payroll employment over that period.

Houston Independent School District

The Houston Independent School District is the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh largest in the United States. Our schools serve a growing, diversified student enrollment in both traditional and alternative, innovative classroom settings. HISD is dedicated to giving every student the best possible education through an intensive core curriculum and an array of specialized, challenging instructional and career programs.

HISD is committed to being the nation's best school system, constantly improving and refining both instructional programs and managerial operations in the interest of effectiveness, productivity, and economy. Our standards for students and staff members are high, and we strive constantly to raise them still higher.

The school system is progressively decentralizing administrative authority to district offices located in the communities they serve, as well as to schools and their decision-making committees. The restructuring and decentralizing initiatives are channeling all of HISD's resources directly to the classroom to support and nurture the crucial relationship of students and teacher.

Student Enrollment HISD encompasses 312 square miles within greater Houston, serving an enrollment of more than 211,000 students.

As recently as 1995-96, student ethnicity was as follows:

Hispanic-51.0%

African American-34.9%

White-11.3%

Asian/Pacific Islander-2.7%

American Indian/Alaskan-0.1%

HISD operates 257 campuses and educational programs:

High Schools (grades 9-12)

26-Middle Schools (grades 6-8)

33-Elementary Schools (PK/K/5/6)
182 (including three schools that extend through grade 8)

Alternative/special schools

16 (including program charter schools)

Katy Education
Katy ISD School Statistics

Total Number of Schools - 24

Total Number of High Schools - 3
Total Number of Students- 22537
5 year Change in Total Students: 31.5 %

Ethnicity:
Black: 1127
Hispanic: 2479
White: 18255
Other: 901

Economically Disadvantaged-10.7 %
Special Education-8 %

Bilingual Education:-4%

Career & Technology Education:-12 %

Gifted & Talented-6 %

Katy ISD Annual Dropout Rates-1.2

SAT: Total Mean Score-944

ACT: Total Composite Score-22

Ratio of Students to Teachers-17.7

Katy High
Mayde Creek High
Taylor High
Opportunity Awareness Center
Miller Career Center

Junior High Schools

Beck Jr. High
Katy Jr. High
Mayde Creek Jr. High
Memorial Parkway Jr. High
T. H. McDonald Jr. High
West Memorial Jr. High

Elementary Schools

Bear Creek Elementary
Cimarron Elementary
Edna Mae Fielder Elementary
Loraine T. Golbow Elementary
Jeanette Hayes Elementary
Zelma Hutsell Elementary
Katy Elementary
Mayde Creek Elementary
Memorial Parkway Elementary
Nottingham Country Elementary
Hazel S. Pattison Elementary
Sundown Elementary
West Memorial Elementary
Diane Winborn Elementary
Maurice L. Wolfe Elementary

Fort Bend ISD
General Information

Fort Bend Independent School District is one of the fastest growing districts in the nation. Families from the around the world move here on a daily basis, drawn by the district's reputation of providing students with a quality education.

Spanning 174 square miles, the Fort Bend Independent School District is located in the northeast part of Fort Bend County. The district encompasses the incorporated cities of Missouri City, Sugar Land, Arcola, and Meadows, a small portion of Houston, and the communities of Clodine, DeWalt, Rosharon and Fresno.

Fort Bend's growth is evident as its student population increases by approximately 2,000 students each fall. During the 1982-83 school year, 23,061 students attended Fort Bend Schools, compared to over 47,000 just 15 years later.

Fort Bend ISD School Statistics

Spring Branch ISD
General Information

The Spring Branch Independent School District encompasses 44 square miles and is located west of downtown Houston along Interstate 10 (Katy Freeway). While much of the district is located inside the city limits of Houston, it also includes the incorporated villages of Bunker Hill, Hedwig, Hilshire, Hunters Creek, Piney Point and Spring Valley.

Spring Branch is a diverse community of well-kept houses, apartments and condominiums in one of the most beautifully wooded sections of the Houston metropolitan area. It is only minutes from downtown, an hour from Galveston, and the Gulf of Mexico and a few hours from Austin, San Antonio, and the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

In keeping with the neighborhood school concept, attendance areas are established for each Spring Branch school. Students go to school in the attendance area in which they reside.

Nationally known for education excellence, the Spring Branch Independent School District continues to attract families who place quality of education as top priority.

In a recent community survey, 85 percent of the respondents rate the overall quality of their schools "excellent" or "good." Eighty-two percent of the residents surveyed felt they were getting a good return on their tax dollars.

The district's 26 elementary, seven middle and six high schools are well known for innovative programs. Spring Branch is fully accredited by the Texas Education Agency and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Thirteen campuses--Bunker Hill, Hunters Creek, Nottingham, Rummel Creek, Frostwood and Wilchester elementary schools, Memorial Middle, Northbrook, Spring Forest and Spring Oaks middle schools, and Stratford, Memorial and Northbrook high schools---have been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for being among the best in the nation.

Each year, the six high schools recognize a significant number of National Merit Scholars. Since 1988, Spring Branch seniors have earned the top SAT scores in Harris Co.--well above the local, state, and national averages.

Spring Branch Schools educate children from all over the world. The student body reflects the cultural diversity of Texas. Of the 29,606 students enrolled, 44 percent are White, 42 percent are Hispanic, 8 percent are Asian and 6 percent are Black.

Spring Branch ISD School Statistics
Total Number of Schools-39
Total Number of Elementary Schools-26
Total Number of Middle Schools-7
Total Number of High Schools-6

Information on Fort Bend Independent School District courtesy of Fort Bend I.S.D. (1997 data)
Information on Katy Independent School District courtesy of Katy I.S.D. (1996 data)
Information on Spring Branch Independent School District courtesy of Spring Branch I.S.D. (1996 data)
Information on Houston courtesy of The Greater Houston Partnership (1996 data)