Pin Oak Middle School


Pin Oak Middle School is a secondary school that is located in Bellaire, Texas, United States. Pin Oak, which serves grades 6 through 8, is a part of the Houston Independent School District. It is located near the intersection of the 610 Loop and U.S. Route 59. From 2002 to 2004 Suzanne Sutherland was principal. From 2004 to 2010 Michael McDonough was Principal. From December 2009 to July 2010 Amy Simson was the interim principal. From 2011 to 2015 Susan Monaghan was principal.
Pin Oak Middle School, which was built in 2003 to relieve nearby middle schools, is an "application-only" school that accepts students by application. Anyone living in Houston ISD may apply for the Foreign Languages magnet program, and the pupils who are zoned to Meyerland Performing and Arts Middle School, Jane Long Middle School, or Pershing middle schools may apply to Pin Oak's regular program. The building sits on an campus.
Pin Oak Middle School has a foreign language magnet program. The school was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2008. The Bellaire Examiner stated in 2010 "Pin Oak’s innovative magnet and Vanguard programs have earned it honors and many more applicants each year than it can accept." In 2011 Isaiah Carey of KRIV said that Pin Oak "is seen as one of the best in HISD for learning and education,"
A contest called "Pin Oak Idol", a spinoff of American Idol, is held annually at Pin Oak Middle School.
Pin Oak is across the street from the Houston Community College System's West Loop Center, and the Challenge Early College High School, both of which are located in the city of Houston.

History

Pin Oak opened in August 2002. Pin Oak's campus was designed by PBK and built for 25 million United States dollars. The school was paid for by the $678 million USD bond approved in 1998.
Before Pin Oak was built, the land that has the campus had horse stables; . The stables were removed before construction began. The school was themed after the stables. Suzanne Sutherland was the first principal.
Pin Oak's 8th grade teams have won over $150k in award money over the previous six years through eCybermission . In 2008, two teams were among the 30 semi-finalists for the Christopher Columbus National Awards as presented by Disney. One of the teams was a finalist, and attended Disney with the 5 other National finalists.
In 2005, the United States Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Governor of Texas Rick Perry visited Pin Oak, since Pin Oak took more than 60 students displaced by Hurricane Katrina .
In 2008 Pin Oak was named a National Blue Ribbon School, as well as a TEA Exemplary school. The Anti-Defamation League of Houston awarded Pin Oak the No Place for Hate designation for 2007-08 during the school's May International program. Finally, in November 2008, Pin Oak was honored as a Texas Business Education Coalition school.
In November 2011 HISD opened an internal investigation regarding allegations of financial misappropriation; thousands of dollars disappeared from an activity and student fee fund. A financial clerk was suspended after the principal discovered the theft.
In 2015 Susan Monaghan, the previous Pin Oak principal, became the principal of Westbury High School.

Design and architecture

HISD wanted the architect to make the building to "make a statement at 60 MPH" since it was in proximity to I-610. The architect gave the school a curved façade to satisfy the request. The architect took care in designing all of the sides of the campus since it had no "back" side. The architect placed one point of entry in the campus near the administrative area.

Admissions

Students, regular and magnet, apply to the magnet program or to the neighborhood school. Acceptance is determined by lottery for the neighborhood application process; magnet acceptance is based on the student's academic history.

Neighborhoods served

Several neighborhoods in Houston inside and outside of the 610 Loop are eligible for Pin Oak's regular program, as they are within the Pershing, Meyerland Middle, and/or Jane Long zones.
They include Braeswood Place, Gulfton, Knollwood Village, Linkwood, Shenandoah, most of Meyerland, Marilyn Estates, Old Braeswood, Southgate, Morningside Place, a portion of Maplewood, Post Oak Manor, a portion of Maplewood South, Sunset Terrace, parts of Upper Kirby, most of Westbury, Westridge, Westwood, Willowbend, Willow Meadows, Woodshire, Woodside, Flack Estates, and parts of Sharpstown.
In addition anyone living in the cities of Bellaire, Southside Place, and West University Place is eligible to attend Pin Oak Middle School.
Rice Village Apartments, a Rice University graduate housing complex that admits families, is zoned to Pershing, which in turn is one of the schools with Pin Oak as an option. Morningside Square, a former Rice complex for families, was also zoned to Pershing.

"House" systems

Pin Oak Middle School is divided into three "house"s that students stay in throughout their years at Pin Oak; each has five classrooms for grade 6, five for grade 7, and five for grade 8. Magnet students are placed in C House, while A & B House are filled by neighborhood students. All three houses provide Pre-AP and advanced classes, although the C House is all Pre-AP.

Languages

Pin Oak is known for its wide range of foreign languages. All 7th and 8th grade students take a foreign language course. The languages are: Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Mandarin Chinese. 6th grade students in C house take all in one year, choosing their favorite language for the last 6 weeks. There is also a native Spanish speakers class.

Sports

Pin Oak offers many sports programs, including football, soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, cheerleading, swimming, and volleyball. The school also includes cross country running, and lacrosse.

Clubs

Pin Oak now has over fifty clubs to choose from, including Duct Tape, Dodgeball, Arts and Crafts, Indoor-Outdoor, Movie Club, Jewelry, Student Council and many more. Many of these clubs are extracurricular; students go to their clubs on Club Days during school.

School uniforms

Pin Oak has a school uniform policy. Students are allowed to wear either plain white, royal blue, or light gray polo shirts or oxford shirts, or monogrammed Pin Oak blue polo shirts. Students are allowed to wear navy blue, blue denim, khaki, or official school tartan bottoms. Sweatshirts may be white, blue or gray. On Fridays students are allowed to wear "Charger Day Shirts" or the regular school uniform shirts.

Student body

During the 2016-2017 school year, Pin Oak had 1,208 students.
About 27% of the students qualified for free or reduced lunch.
In 2006 the Rotarians in the area selected Pin Oak Middle School as that year's school to do its "Success at Work" program, where volunteers teach middle schoolers how to succeed in the job market, due to Pin Oak's ethnic diversity.

Feeder patterns

The following elementary schools feed into Pin Oak Middle School's regular program:
Pin Oak takes students from portions of the attendance boundaries of the following high schools: