HOUSTON – The Board of Education has voted unanimously to approve a settlement that will allow Houston ISD to build a new school on the site of the original Wheatley High School in Fifth Ward.
The new Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy for Young Men will incorporate original building materials, including bricks and decorative ornaments, into the design. The Gregg Street and Lyons Avenue facades of the new two-story facility will use a similar architectural style as the current H.P. Carter building, according to the district.
HISD is agreeing to devote up to $1 million toward the construction. Under the 2012 bond program, the academy is being built for up to 1,000 secondary students in grades 6 through 12.
Demolition will begin early next week, and construction is expected to start before the end of the year.
Leland, a graduate of Wheatley High School who went on to serve six years in the Texas House of Representatives and six years in the U.S. House of Representatives, died in a plane crash in 1989 while on a mercy mission to Ethiopia.
On Saturday, the community is invited to take personal photographs of the exterior of the Carter building from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.