In 1893, Charles Munger, a former Kansas banker, hosted a Friday night gathering of key families to discuss creating a school for their children in the Pasadena area. Among the families in attendance were the Andersons, Hays, Johnsons, Mungers, Pitts and Wafers, names more familiar in Pasadena today as streets. The six families had about 30 children among them. After the meeting, the men converted Munger’s chicken coop at the corner of Shaver Street and Little Vince Bayou into a small, one-room schoolhouse. Seven children graced the door of the little schoolhouse affectionately called the "Chicken Ranch." Its first teacher was Munger’s 17-year-old son, Russel. The following year, the community built a little, one-room Academy located on the southeast corner of what is now Wafer and Shaw Streets. Harrisburg received permission from the state to assume responsibility for formal public education in the Pasadena area. For the next three years, Pasadena and its "Harrisburg" school plodded along, losing ground each day to the growth in neighboring Deepwater. Enrollment declined to fewer than 12 students. Harris County provided little money to support even such a small operation.

All that changed with the arrival of Oscar and Hanna Kruse, Swedish immigrants who moved to Texas from Butte, Montana. Kruse had a heart for education and a strong desire to build a sense of community in Pasadena. Voters in the community, led by Kruse and others, called an election to support the school as they saw fit. On March 26, 1898, the issue passed by a resounding vote of 23 to 0. The Pasadena school became an independent district.

The small, one-room schoolhouse varied greatly from today’s modern structures. Teaching offered its own set of challenges. The few students enrolled stretched across all grades. First graders sat near the front of the room, followed by second graders, etc. The day was also filled with recitations and math. When the teacher felt the children had mastered the material, they moved to the set of skills appropriate for the next grade level. Students learned to read using the Bible. The school day included music, prayer and recess. Boys were separated from the girls for recess. Water was drawn from a nearby well with children drinking from a dipper in a bucket. School lunches were brought from home in a syrup pail or tobacco tin. Lunch usually consisted of biscuits with butter or syrup, or potatoes and bacon.

Strawberry farming made an impact on the public school system. Children were needed to help plant and harvest the fruit crop. As an independent system, Pasadena could establish its school year at any time. It exercised that authority by setting the school calendar at the whim of "season, circumstance or budget." The trustees set the start of school usually in June. It ended about five months later, or whenever the money ran out.

After the term was ended in December of 1904, the schoolhouse moved to its new location on the south side of Broadway between Main and Shaver. A lean-to was constructed on the back of the building one year later to provide more classroom space. That lean-to classroom and a blanket draped down the middle of the main building gave the Pasadena schools three classrooms for its 56 students. The days of the one-room schoolhouse were over in the growing community.

By 1910, Kruse began pushing for a new schoolhouse to replace the wood-frame structure. He frequently mused to his wife that the community needed "a handsome brick schoolhouse" if people of influence choose to settle in Pasadena. Prominent Pasadena residents called for a school bond election for $10,000. The bond issue passed 30-2 vote. The two-story building, constructed next to the existing schoolhouse, had six classrooms, an auditorium and a distinctive bell tower. Completed in August 1910, the school’s distinctive profile was visible for miles through the flat Pasadena coastal plain.

Most parents saw the need for basic academic instruction. They wanted their children to read and write. They saw the need for basic arithmetic skills. Most reached that basic level of education by the seventh grade. After seven grades of school, students earned a graduation certificate. Most opted to go no farther with their education. High school courses were available in Harrisburg for those who passed the seventh grade final exam.

After World War I ended, there was a degree of prosperity in the community. Parents who dreamed of better things for their children began to see the value of a high school education and technical training. The board bought land along Shaver for the specific purpose of building a high school in Pasadena. The high school program in Pasadena started in 1923, although the high school campus was not completed until 1924. The board named Richard Gore principal of Pasadena High School.

The two credits earned by Ruby Hargrave in summer school in 1923 gave her the distinction of becoming Pasadena’s first graduate. Commencement for the first official graduating class was held on May 16, 1924, in the auditorium of the Methodist Church. Five students earned their diplomas that night. They were Ralph Blakesley, Lillian Brannen, Eva Edming, Anna Kruse and Ruth Williams.

During the early decades of the school district, people in the community played key roles creating a solid foundation for its schools. Educators then made profound contributions that built a reputation for Pasadena that would last decades. After the high school opened in 1924, the old schoolhouse became the Pasadena Grammar School. Mae Smythe became the principal of the grammar school. She had already taught 13 years. Before she would retire she would add another 36 years in Pasadena. "Miss Mae" came to Pasadena in the early 1920s and quickly earned a reputation as a stern taskmaster and strict disciplinarian. She was one of those rare individuals who could command respect, fear and love from everyone she met. She was eventually joined by her sisters, Lillian and Sadye, to make up one of the most notable education families in Pasadena.

Long-time Pasadena resident Doris Barnes Howell was in the fourth grade when Miss Mae came to Pasadena. "We were her children," said Howell. "If she walked in right now and told me to do something, I’d go do it. She made her reputation that year with us." Smythe’s demeanor was as much a reflection of the times as it was her own personality. The iron fist and velvet glove was used by most teachers and administrators.

Most communities struggled to maintain their school systems during the Depression. Trustees from South Houston and Genoa, fearful they would be unable to pay teacher salaries, approached Pasadena trustees in September 1934, asking to be consolidated into the Pasadena system. On January 1, 1935, the common school districts of South Houston and Genoa became a part of the Pasadena Independent School District. The district now encompassed 56 square miles and saw its enrollment leap overnight from 940 students to 1,485.

The merger of school districts added three campuses to the Pasadena roster, one from South Houston and two from Genoa. In addition, to Genoa Elementary School, Pasadena absorbed the Allen-Genoa School, a separate school for Hispanic students located about a mile from the main campus. The tiny campus was merged with Genoa near the end of World War II. When PISD took over the South Houston school it got more than students and a building. The district found another tough-as-nails administrator in Pearl Hall who served as principal of the South Houston campus beginning in 1927. By the time she left the school for Queens Elementary School in 1953, Pearl Hall had become as much a part of that campus as were the bricks and mortar.

Soon, it became apparent that the Pasadena Grammar School could not contain the number of students enrolled. Board members made a decision to build a junior high school near the Pasadena elementary and high schools. Jackson Junior High School was constructed in 1937 on land given to the school district by the James Andrew Jackson family. When Principal W. J. Cole opened Jackson to students in the seventh eight and ninth grades, it completed what was later to be deemed Pasadena’s "holy trinity" of schools.

There is still an element of pride among those in the community who claim to have graduated from Kruse, Jackson and Pasadena High, probably because those schools were so closely connected. The connection was never more evident than in the schools’ extracurricular activities. "Even in the middle of the Depression, Pasadena was a progressive district," said Alden Bailey, a former school board member who attended Kruse in the 1930s. The school system started its fledgling band program during a decade when most districts did not have the money to try anything new. Too few high school students could afford a horn to play. Gene Stuchbery, the former vaudeville entertainer turned band director, opened the program to intermediate and elementary students, anyone who had an instrument. Said Bailey, "They called it the Pasadena High School Band, but anybody that had a horn from the first grade through the 11th grade played in the band." Bailey laughs, "I’m one of the few kids that had 10 letters in the PHS band."

The number of students enrolled in PISD schools more than doubled during World War II. By the time the war ended over 3,700 students walked the halls of Pasadena’s schools. The refineries began shifting their production toward civilian uses and expanded to meet the demands of a nation bent on making the most of its freedom and new found prosperity. The industrial growth had an explosive impact on the school district for the next 20 years. From the end of World War II through 1970, the district experienced growth in excess of 1,500 students each year.

In the 1950s, the district opened 12 elementary schools, two junior highs and one high school. Among the schools opened were Richey Elementary (1951), Southmore Junior High (1953), Queens Elementary and Red Bluff elementary schools (1954), Mae Smythe Elementary (1955), with Garfield, Parks and Pearl Hall elementary schools opening in 1956. The district opened South Houston as its second high school in 1957. Carroll Teague served as principal. By the end of the decade, 18,775 students attended school in the Pasadena school district, doubling the enrollment listed in 1950. Enrollment practically doubled again during the 1960s. Just 10 years later, enrollment eclipsed 35,000.

New schools were added as the district expanded farther and farther south. What was once open land in southeast Houston and Harris County became a rapidly growing South Belt/Sagemont area of Houston. The district opened its first school in this new community in 1963. Among the elementary schools opened during the 1960s were Freeman (1960), Fisher (1963), Meador (1963), Stuchbery (1967), McMasters (1968), Jensen and Atkinson (both in 1969). Beverly Hills (1964), Park View (1965) and Miller (1968) were each opened as intermediate schools. In an effort to keep the size of each high school manageable, the district built Sam Rayburn (1965) and Dobie high schools (1968).

Up to the dawn of the 1970s, the Pasadena Independent School District faced problems brought about by rapid growth. Growth reached its peak in 1975 at 37,493 and remained fairly constant through the remainder of the decade. However, certain areas of the school district were still growing. Three new schools were built in the South Belt area. Thompson Intermediate School opened in 1972 to relieve serious overcrowding at Beverly Hills. The campus was named in honor of George Thompson, Pasadena’s superintendent from 1961 through 1972. As superintendent, Thompson earned state and national notoriety, earning the Pacemaker Award for educational excellence. During his tenure, Pasadena was named one of the 10 most outstanding schools in the nation by Parade Magazine.

Beginning in the late 1960s and into the 1970s a new set of challenges emerged, challenges not associated with growth. Those who served on the board in the 1960s and 1970s still believe world events and state politics played a major role in shaping the difficulties faced by teachers and administrators at the time. A new state law dictated curriculum design in an effort to be more consistent throughout the state. Placing the burden squarely on the shoulders of teachers, House Bill 72 pitted principals against teachers, teachers against teachers and board members against the lot of them as they wrestled with career ladder appeals. The appraisal process stifled creativity and sharing of effective teaching strategies because career ladder money connected to the appraisal was limited and available only to those who demonstrated "clearly outstanding" teaching skills.

The system created even broader heartaches in Pasadena during the 1980s because of the changes that were shaking the core of a very proud district. Pasadena enjoyed a strong state and national reputation from the 1950s through the most of the 1970s. The growing district expanded its economic base as the local economy flourished. The district’s demographics reflected a sizable, stable and homogenous middle class community. A subtle change began in the early 1980s. Steadily the percentage of minority students attending Pasadena schools increased. Attendance records show a demographic shift with the Hispanic population increasing between two and three percent per year while the percentage of the Anglo population decreased similarly. The change continue through 1996-97 when 51 percent of the students enrolled were Hispanic, 39 percent White. Economic factors created more challenges. The average wealth of the families moving to the city and the district fell with each passing year. The once middle class community faced serious problems associated with poverty.

As the district adjusted to these changes, enrollment began to grow again. Beginning 1988, the district averaged an increase in the student population of about 800 students per year. The new growth put a strain on the district’s aging facilities. Matthys, Morales and Turner elementary schools were opened in 1992. Bondy Intermediate and the Tegeler Career Center soon followed.

Several things happened since 1990 creating positive trends both in academic achievement and renewed growth. Intensive staff development, the introduction of computer technology in the classroom, varied teaching strategies and styles and consistent leadership resulted in new state and national recognition for the Pasadena district. One can find the signs of success in almost every program, but there may be no greater indication that the improved academic achievement and campus ratings. For each of the past five years, student scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) have steadily and dramatically improved. In the past two years, the district has had 20 campuses earn exemplary or recognized status under the state’s accountability system.

The institution created by the founders of the Pasadena school system is dramatically different today. The face of education in Pasadena has changed, but the mission has not. New techniques and technologies open new doors, but the desire to help ever child succeed has remained as the heart and soul of the Pasadena Independent School District for 100 years.

The past contains wonderful memories. Today presents its own challenges and opportunities. Tomorrow is full of unknowns. There is work yet to be done. As American poet Robert Frost said, there are "miles to go before we sleep."

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