SISD Considers ‘All-Girl’ Magnet School
EL PASO, TX. – Socorro Independent School District students could soon have a new high school that focuses on math, science, and technology. There is one catch: no boys are allowed.
There is a very good chance some of the sixth grade girls from Sanchez Middle School will go to an all girls high school. SocorroISD is in the planning stagesof building a math, science and technology high school to encourage girls to take careers in those fields.
“They’re underrepresented in those areas so we’re really trying to level the playing field for all of our students, primarily our girls in those three areas.” says SISD Superintendent, Dr. Sylvia Atkinson. Plans for the new high school are still in the preliminary stages atthis point, so at least for the next few years, high schools in the Socorro Independent School District like Socorro High School will be keeping all of their female students.
Dr. Atkinson says the tentative dates for the school’s opening would be around 2009. Jazmin Espinoza, a freshman at Socorro High School, says she won’t be one of the students sitting in the classroom on the first day. “Not right now because math and science aren’t really my subjects.”
Atkinson hopes to attract girls like that with the math, science and technology intensive curriculum. “We offer the standard high school curriculum, but what happens is that we try to integrate math, science and technology throughout the curriculum. So you’ll see math, science and technology in all the subject areas.”
The superintendent is planning trips to all girls schools in Dallas and Austin. A location for the school and how much it will cost have not yet been determined. Dr. Atkinson says taxpayer money will NOTbe used to fund this project.
