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M. B. Smiley High School

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M.B. Smiley High School was a public secondary school in Houston, Texas, United States. Smiley, which served grades 9 through 12, and was a part of the North Forest Independent School District. M.B. Smiley was featured in the film Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story, which aired on Lifetime. The campus is later was used as the main campus for North Forest High School.[1][2] As of 2022 it is used as the Houston Independent School District Education Learning Center.[3]

The former Smiley High School, converted into North Forest High School at the time, now the Houston Independent School District Education Learning Center

Marilyn Gambrell, a parole officer who became a teacher, started a program called "No More Victims", which was designed to prevent children of incarcerated individuals from going to prison.

The library, the Carole M. Anderson Library, was named after Carole Mae Anderson, a Smiley English teacher who donated books to the school's previous library facility.[4]

History

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The original Smiley facility was built in 1953.[5]

In July 1980, the school's main building was burned to the ground, due to arson. A series of portable buildings was brought in, and the completed new building opened in 1984. [6]

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 Smiley campus. 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.[7]

During the 2001–2002 school year, Smiley had 1,631 students. It had a capacity of 3,125 students. This gave the school a 52% classroom usage rate.[8]

On July 20, 2007, some teenagers vandalized Forest Brook High with a water hose.[9][10] After the vandalism of Forest Brook High School, North Forest ISD decided to merge Forest Brook's population into Smiley until Forest Brook was repaired. Some parents and observers criticized the decision, fearing territorial rivalries would cause tension between Forest Brook and Smiley students. School officials states that the repair would take at least four months.[11] Forest Brook re-opened in the spring.

In 2007 Johns Hopkins University referred to Smiley as a "dropout factory" where at least 40 percent of the entering freshman class did 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, initially located in the Forest Brook building, was named North Forest High School.[15] However, after Hurricane Ike North Forest High moved to the Smiley location.[16] North Forest High used the Smiley building until 2018, when the Houston Independent School District (which absorbed North Forest ISD) opened a new North Forest High across Mesa Drive and converted the former Smiley building into the Education Learning Center, a professional development facility.[3]

Notable alumni

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References

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  1. ^ "Directory of Schools." North Forest Independent School District. Retrieved on July 15, 2011.
  2. ^ "North Forest High School Ninth Grade Center and Main Campus Standard Dress Code Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine." North Forest Independent School District. Retrieved on July 15, 2011. "A standard dress code has been approved for North Forest High School. All students North Forest High School attending both the main campus at 10725 Mesa Drive and the Ninth Grade Center at 6602 Winfield Road are required to adhere to the required dress code."
  3. ^ a b "New employee educational learning center to open in North Forest". Houston Independent School District. 2018-09-05. Retrieved 2022-08-27.
  4. ^ "Carole M. Anderson Library." (Archive) North Forest High School. Retrieved on July 15, 2013.
  5. ^ "Window on State Government--NFISD Texas School Performance Review, Chapter 5 Archived 2002-10-15 at the Wayback Machine." Texas Education Agency. Retrieved on November 14, 2011.
  6. ^ Hveem, Todd. "Jaguars could share Elmore's Gym with Smiley." Houston Chronicle. July 26, 2001. Retrieved on February 19, 2015.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ "Chapter 5 FACILITIES USE AND MANAGEMENT NORTH FOREST INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT Archived 2013-07-18 at archive.today." Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Retrieved on November 21, 2011.
  9. ^ "Police search for school vandals." KTRK-TV. Friday July 20, 2007. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Scharrer, Gary. "Report points to 'dropout factories'." Houston Chronicle. October 31, 2007. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  13. ^ Mellon, Ericka. "North Forest votes to merge schools." 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." Houston Chronicle. Tuesday May 20, 2008. B2. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.
  16. ^ Home page. North Forest High School. Retrieved November 22, 2008. "High school students will report to the M.B. Smiley High School campus School will resume for high school students on Wednesday, Oct. 1. Because of extensive damage to the North Forest High School campus, all North Forest High School students will report to the M.B. Smiley campus for school."
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