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Project plans to build needed East Austin school
By Hyunjin Kim
Fifteen-year-old East Austin resident Catalina Herrera said she was not comfortable when she went to O. Henry Middle School in West Austin after completing Allan Elementary School.
"The school was so far, and I was embarrassed, because my parent didn't have a good car like my friends did. Teachers also didn't understand where I am from," Herrera said. Geneva Oliva, Herrera's mother, said she was also embarrassed when she went to parents' meetings. Oliva said her daughter's teacher asked her why Herrera didn't go to middle school in East Austin. In the Govalle/Johnston Terrace area in East Austin there is no middle school, so students are bussed to other middle schools such as O.Henry, Murchison, Lamar and Martin middle schools, said Johnny R. Townsend, a youth pastor at Solid Rock Baptist Church in East Austin. "It had been a big problem for students in the Govalle/Johnston Terrace neighborhood for a long time. They couldn't take an advantage of after-school activities and tutoring, because they had to catch the school buses that run immediately after school to get home," Townsend said. The Southwest Key East Austin Community Development Project hopes to help alleviate this and other problems in East Austin by improving the physical, political, economic and social well-being of members of the community. In 2006, the Austin-based nonprofit organization Southwest Key Program Inc. and the East Austin Community Advisory Council created the project, which includes plans for a new middle school. "Our goal is to serve as a model middle school that successfully prepares all students, regardless of economic background, for a rigorous high school curriculum," said Sal Cavazos, chief development officer for Southwest Key Program. Before 1980, Allan was the only junior high school in Johnston Terrace, but in 1980, Allan closed down and changed into an elementary school, according to the school's Web site. Townsend said the youth and their families in East Austin are from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and, in most cases, do not have transportation. The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely.
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