Ebbert L. Furr High School is a secondary school located in Houston, Texas, United States. Furr, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District.
Furr is adjacent to Hermann Brown Park and the Songwood subdivision.
Furr is home to the META (Mindful Exploration of Technology and the Arts) Magnet Program; prior to 2007 Furr hosted an international studies magnet program.
The HISD charter school REACH Charter is located at Furr.
History
The district broke ground for the Furr building in 1960; the campus opened in fall 1961. The school was named after Ebbert L. Furr, a landholder who owned the land that Furr High School is located on.
Prior to 1997 residents zoned to Furr also had the option to attend Austin and Milby high schools; in 1997 the school district canceled the option. Before 2000, Furr High School had a larger attendance boundary than it does as of 2010. After the 2000 opening of Chávez High School, portions of the former Furr boundary were reassigned to Austin and Milby high schools.
After 2002, the Furr high school yearbook was discontinued. The final printing had a financial loss of around $3,000 ($ inflation-adjusted).
Principalship of Bertie Simmons
Bertie Simmons (died 2021) began her term as principal in 2000. She had retired from teaching, but decided to become a principal after her granddaughter died in a skiing accident. In 2003 a riot occurred at Furr. While many assistant principals wanted to send the 42 involved children to CEP, a disciplinary school, Simmons called them into her office to have a discussion. The students said that they did not believe that the September 11 attacks occurred, and that they believed the authorities were trying to deceive them. Simmons told them that she would take them to New York City in the June following that school year if the school remained at peace. After the school term completed, the students traveled to New York City. In 2010 Simmons was ranked as the 2010 Houston Press best school principal. Laura Isensee of Houston Public Media stated in 2017 that Simmons's term was relatively long as many principals of low income urban high schools have relatively short terms.
Around 2010 several students who originated from Honduras and newly enrolled at Furr were M13 gang members. In 2016 Margaret Downing of the Houston Press wrote that by 2016 "they were handled and are long gone".
Terry Grier gave Simmons an Excellence in Leadership award in 2015 despite previously having some workplace disagreements with Simmons.
In 2016 Furr won the Super School competition, organized by Laurene Powell Jobs, prevailing over about 700 other schools. The prize was a $10 million grant, awarded by the XQ Institute, and the Furr administration planned to use the money to revitalize the teaching program. The grant was awarded partly because Simmons had installed a conflict mediation room for students called the "thinkery room". Simmons also intended to have an on-campus community center funded with the grant money.