MONICO RIVAS, Principal 2005-present  

Welcome to our school’s Website!

Liberty High School celebrated our eighteenth year of education this January and is proud to offer HISD’s students in Southwest Houston a high school experience that is unique in the state of Texas. Liberty is the only high school in our state that offers overage newly arrived immigrant students who balance full-time work and family responsibilities with earning a high school diploma. Our school was established at the end of 2004 as a response to a need in our community for greater options for young adults to earn a high school diploma. Southwest Houston is considered one of the most diverse parts in the metropolitan area.  More than sixty languages are spoken in the surrounding community and a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds are represented.

 

In order to meet the needs of this underserved and academically diverse population, the Gulfton community proposed to open a charter school with the flexibility and innovative instructional methodologies needed to meet their needs. Located in the heart of the Gulfton community in Southwest Houston, the school is continuing to develop its academic and student support programs to serve the ever changing needs of its students and community.  Liberty High School (formerly Newcomer Charter) offers flexible scheduling, in the form of weekend, day and evening classes and a year-round academic calendar, as well as an intensive English acquisition component.  In addition to the academic support provided, students have access to a social support system through Communities in Schools (CIS) with an adult advocacy program and a link to social services in the community. Furthermore,Liberty High School continues to develop strong partnerships with the Southwest Houston community to fully engage parents, businesses, social service providers, and faith-based organizations in support of the academic aspirations of its young adults.

Liberty High School was approved by the HISD Board of Education on September 9, 2004 and opened on January 10, 2005. With 125 students enrolled on opening night, the school opened its doors already having exceeded the projected starting student enrollment of 75 students. Currently,Liberty High School serves 442 students between the age of 17 and 25 who are recent immigrants to the United States and who have no or few credits toward a high school diploma.  The students’ levels of native language literacy range from pre-literate to highly fluent, and their educational experiences range from having no exposure to formal education at all to having completed several years of formal education in their home countries. Upon enrollment, our students express a strong desire to learn English and to continue with their education beyond high school. Many students also come to Liberty from other schools in HISD when their work or family responsibilities require that they have a flexible school schedule to be able to continue with their education. Since 2004, the students enrolled in our school have come to us from several Latin American countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Belize and Colombia.  In other years, Liberty also had students from Ghana,Somalia, The Republic of Congo, Burundi, Sudan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Nepal, The Ivory Coast, Liberia, Pakistan, Bhutan, Eritrea and Iraq. This year, we welcomed recent arrivals from Afghanistan. 

Like our student population, our faculty and staff are also multicultural. Currently, we have teachers and support staff who trace their heritage from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, Venezuela, the Philippines, India, China, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Kores. Though diverse in both culture and experience, we are united in our commitment to doing all that is necessary to support our students’ efforts to meet the requirements for a high school diploma and to prepare for post-secondary education. Our school invites all who share in our belief that all of our community benefits from having more of our young adults graduate from high school to contact us to find out how we can work together to support the educational aspirations of our students.

“None of us can change our yesterdays, but all of us can change our tomorrows.” (Colin Powell)