Lyndon Baines JohnsonEarly College High School is a public high school in northeast Austin, Texas. At the time of its opening in 1974, LBJ was only the second high school in the U.S. to be named for the 36th President. In 1985, LBJ became the host of a new academic magnet program, the Science Academy of Austin, which drew students from all over the city. A second high school magnet program, the Liberal Arts Academy of Austin, was opened at Albert Sidney Johnston High School in 1987; the two magnets were merged in 2002, forming the Liberal Arts and Science Academy magnet within LBJ. In 2007, the Austin Independent School District split LASA and LBJ into separate high schools with their own principals, faculty, and staff in order for LBJ to be eligible for a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement the "First Things First" educational enrichment program. Since the split, LBJ and LASA have been housed on the same campus and have generally continued to share athletic teams and certain extracurricular activities and electives. In 2011, via a partnership with the Austin Community College, LBJ established a new program through which students could earn up to 60 college credits while still in high school, earning it the "Early College High School" designation it bears today. LBJ Early College High School's mascot is the Jaguar, and the school's colors are purple and white. The current principal of LBJ Early College High School is Paulette Walls. Patrick Patterson, who had been at the school since the 2004-2005 school year as part of the high school campus redesign program initiated to help raise TAKS scores, retired after the 2009-2010 school year. As a result of the split, LASA and LBJ are required to have separate principals. The school occupies the first floor of its campus, while LASA is on the second floor. Melissa B. Taboada of the Austin American-Statesman stated that some members of the Austin community "say the division is a constant blemish on the campus".
Student body
As of 2015, 95% of the students at LBJ are Hispanic/Latino and black. 2% of the students are white.
Academic performance
In 2015 Taboada stated "LBJ has struggled academically for years."
Campus
The LBJ campus is located in northeast Austin. The school was built in 1974, taking on a portion of what had been the Reagan High School student body. The school was designed by Brooks, Barr, Graber & White, an Austin-based architecture firm. LBJ went through various renovations during summer 2010, including remodeling many of the science labs used by LASA. The building is primarily triangular with the addition of the fine arts wing and the theatre. The Theatre was named the Don T. Haynes III Performing Arts Center, after LBJ's band director of 37 years. The outside of the campus is maintained by a volunteer group of students and parents. The most well known feature of the LBJ campus is "The Texas," a large, granite statue in the shape of the state's outline. The statue, a gift from the class of 1978, sits outside the front of the school. As the school is built upon a hill the lowest level is partially underground to the north and therefore has no windows. It is fondly referred to as "The Dungeon" throughout campus. The Dungeon contains the robotic and engineering labs, the wood shop, gym, and science classrooms. Additionally there are two upper floors of which the first is inhabited by LBJ and the second upper floor is inhabited by LASA. On campus there are also eight portables only 3 of which are used by LASA. It is three stories tall, with three protruding academic wings currently designated by 3 different colored borders: white, yellow, and purple. The purple halls are mostly humanities and ELA rooms, the white halls are mostly for math, and the yellow halls are mostly science classes. At that time, a huge student-painted mural dedicated to Kent Faseler, a girls' soccer coach and English teacher dubbed in the mural as "the Wizard of Fas," adorned one wall next to his class area in what was then the "orange open area" on the second floor. One notable feature of the school is the fine arts hall, a wide open space lined with lockers designated for band students only. In 2002 a group of seniors started a Reagan-LBJ tradition by wrapping the Texas in saran wrap to protect it from vandals. The night before the annual Reagan-LBJ football game, seniors wrap the Texas in saran wrap and spend the night keeping it and other parts of the campus safe from vandalism by students of their rival Reagan High School.
