page_title: Gulfton, Houston
section_title: History of elementary and middle schools
hierarchical_section_title: Gulfton, Houston / Education / Primary and secondary schools / Elementary and middle schools / History of elementary and middle schools
caption_attribution_description: English: L. T. Cunningham Elementary School Español: Escuela Primaria L. T. Cunningham Tiếng Việt: Tiểu Học L. T. Cunningham
context_page_description: Gulfton is a community in Southwest Houston, Texas, United States that includes a 3.2 sq mi group of apartment complexes that primarily house refugee and immigrant populations. It is located between the 610 Loop and Beltway 8, west of the City of Bellaire, southeast of Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59, and north of Bellaire Boulevard.
  In the 1960s and 1970s Gulfton experienced rapid development, with new apartment complexes built for young individuals from the Northeast and Midwest United States. They came to work in the oil industry during the 1970s oil boom.
  In the 1980s, as the economy declined, existing tenants left, resulting in a significant drop in occupancy rates in the apartment complexes and forcing many complexes into bankruptcy and foreclosure. Owners marketed the empty units to newly arrived immigrants and Gulfton became a predominantly immigrant community. Beginning in the 1980s Gulfton's crime rate increased and schools were increasingly overwhelmed with excess students. "Houstonians" nicknamed the community the "Gulfton Ghetto."
context_section_description: In 1953, Cunningham Elementary School, the first elementary school to serve Gulfton, was built with a capacity for 300 students. Braeburn Elementary School opened in 1956. Long Middle School, which as of 2008 serves Gulfton, opened in 1957.
  In 1979, Cunningham Elementary School had 436 students, well over its original capacity of 300. 75.5% of them were White, 14% qualified for free lunch, and 15% qualified for reduced cost lunch. Due to the increasing population and the sudden conversion of adults-only complexes to family oriented, Cunningham Elementary School became overcrowded by 1986 with its enrollment increasing from around 500 in 1985 to more than 900 the next year. By 1988, Gordon Elementary School, a campus in Bellaire, Texas, re-opened to serve as a reliever school to Cunningham and to a non-Gulfton school. By September 3 of that year, 1,268 students were enrolled at Cunningham; 72% were classified as Hispanic and 99% were on free or reduced-cost lunch programs. Many of the children arrived from Central American countries experiencing civil strife, and therefore many had received an inadequate education prior to coming to the United States. In 1989, Cunningham's overcrowding was described as being "unanticipated." In 1988 the U.S. federal government passed the Fair Housing Act, which, under most circumstances, prohibits any policy that excludes families with children from living in an apartment complex. Abbe Boring, the principal of Cunningham in 1992, said that the student population increased when formerly singles-only apartments were required to allow families to rent complexes. In September 1991 Braeburn and Cunningham were two of 32 HISD schools that had capped enrollments; in other words, the schools were filled to capacity and excess students had to attend other schools. By 1992, Cunningham had around 1,200 students and 51 temporary classroom units. Immediately prior to the opening of Benavidez, Cunningham had 1,400 students.
  Benavidez Elementary School, which opened on Tuesday, January 21, 1992, relieved Cunningham of around 675 students and 29 teachers. Benavidez, along with two other schools, was a part of a $370 million Houston ISD school construction project, which originated from a school bond approved in March 1989. Rose Garza, the principal of Benavidez, said that the committee determining the name of the school named it after Roy P. Benavidez, a soldier in the Vietnam War who was given the Medal of Honor, because the school wanted to name the school after a Hispanic who could serve as a positive role model to the mostly Hispanic student body that occupied the school when it opened. HISD officials said that the district had little difficulty opening the three schools in the middle of the year, since the same teachers had been teaching the same students while they occupied the previously overcrowded schools in the preceding fall. On its opening day Benavidez referred 400 students to other schools due to overcrowding. After Benavidez opened, Benavidez and Cunningham each had about 700 students. In 1994, Benavidez had 1,065 pupils and it had to send 200 children to different schools. As of that year, 88% of Benavidez's children were Hispanic. By 1996, both Cunningham and Benavidez became overcrowded. Gordon also became a reliever school for Benavidez and another non-Gulfton school. SER-Niños opened in 1996. In 2000 Benavidez had 1,300 students and Cunningham had 1,190 students. At the schools, the average classroom size was 30 students, exceeding the state's recommendation of 22 students per classroom.
  The Las Américas Education Center, which included a preschool named Las Américas Early Childhood Development Center and two middle schools, Las Américas Middle School and Kaleidoscope Middle School, started in 1995 as a reliever campus for Cunningham and Benavidez. The reliever school was established with funds from the "Weed and Seed" program established by City of Houston officials. In 2000, the center moved into the Las Américas Apartments in Gulfton.
  Rodriguez Elementary, built on almost 10 acres 
caption: Cunningham Elementary School
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