page_title: Aldine Independent School District
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Aldine Independent School District / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Aldine School House in Harris County School District 29 in 1921.
context_page_description: The Aldine Independent School District is a public school district based in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, United States. It serves portions of Houston and unincorporated Harris County. Aldine ISD serves the communities of Aldine, most of Greenspoint, most of East Aldine, and portions of Airline, Acres Homes, Kinwood, Bordersville, and Inwood Forest. The district is part of the taxation base for the Lone Star College System. As of 2020, LaTonya Goffney serves as superintendent of schools.
context_section_description: In 1876, after a series of new education laws, Harris County authorized the creation of several school communities. Harris County School Community No. 1, the Westfield School Community, was established by W. L. Higgs, H. Illonefield and James McLeod on September 30, 1876. Harris County School Community No. 13, the Durdin School Community, was established by G. L. Durdin, Pleasant Smith Humble, and H. Smith on December 22, 1876. On November 18, 1881, the trustees of Westfield Community No. 1 (H. Tautenhahn, Redding Jackson and S. Yarborough) were authorized to sell off the old school house and one acre of land to pay for the construction of a new school house. In 1883, 38 students were being educated in the Westfield community, and 20 students in the Higgs community.
  On June 18, 1884, the Harris County Commissioners Court consolidated the local school communities (Higgs and Westfield) into one school district:  Harris County Common School District 29. A single three-person board directed activities of the district for four decades. On February 19, 1910, a schoolhouse bond of $8,000 (for constructing and equipping a public free school building of wood material)  was passed by the citizens. In 1912–1913, District 29 had three intermediate schools (grades 1–7): Aldine, Westfield and Higgs. It also had one high school that educated students in grades 8 and 9: Hartwell. The Westfield school was closed for the 1913-1914 school year.
  On June 18, 1932, District 29 residents voted 123-44 for a $40,000 bond to consolidate the four schoolhouses for white students (Aldine, Brubaker, Higgs and Westfield) into one new centralized school. This two-story brick building would contain 12 classrooms and an auditorium. It would house grades 1-7 and allow the district to offer high school classes (grades 8 and 9) for the first time since the Hartwell School had closed. When the 1932-33 school year began, high school students met at Memorial Baptist Church, located at East Montgomery Road (today's Airline Drive) and Gulf Bank. The new, as yet unnamed school opened in February 1933 at the intersection of Aldine-Bender Road and Aldine Westfield and immediately was filled to capacity. District 29 added grades 10 and 11 in 1933-34 to complete what was then considered a full high school program. On May 25, 1934, the now-christened S.M.N. Marrs School graduated its first class, consisting of nine students.  S. M. N. Marrs was named for Starlin Marion Newberry Marrs, who served as the state superintendent of public instruction for Texas from 1923 to 1932. Roughly a year later, in the spring of 1935, District 29 absorbed part of Common School District 49, also known as the North Houston District. 
  On May 4, 1935, voters in Common School District 29 approved creation of the Aldine Independent School District (AISD) by a 128 to 28 margin. With the S.M.N. Marrs School filled to capacity, AISD voters approved 57-14 a $25,000 bond for construction of a new 10-classroom junior/senior high school building on September 7, 1935.  This new building opened in 1936 next door to the Marrs School on Aldine-Westfield Road. It too was named S.M.N. Marrs. AISD acquired part of Common School District 26, also known as the White Oak District, in 1937. This added portions of Acres Homes to AISD. Included was the White Oak School, which became the district's school for black students. In the spring of 1948, AISD opened another high school located immediately to the north of S.M.N. Marrs High.  This school was named Aldine High School, after the nearby community. The former Marrs High School was turned into a junior high school.
  On November 24, 1954, the main building of Aldine High School was destroyed by a six-alarm fire. A new high school campus was built in 1956 at 11101 Airline Drive at West Road on the site of the former Gulf Coast Airport.
caption: Aldine School House in 1921
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