| Campus Description: |
400 FM 350 South<br />
Grades: 9th – 12th<br />
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On May 10, 2008, LISD voters voted overwhelmingly in favor of a $64 million bond to fund the construction of a new high school campus. The former campus on Lions Avenue had become outdated for the expanding high school population, requiring 26 portable buildings and seven floating teachers to accommodate them and offering no Career and Technical Education (CTE) facilities. A previous bond issue for the construction of a new high school had been defeated, which was costing taxpayers an additional 12% in inflated construction costs for each delayed year (a $2 million cost increase per year) as estimated by school board secretary Ben Ogletree III.<br />
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The design and construction of the new high school were handled by Claycomb Associates, Architects. It was built on 72 acres of land that were purchased for $15,500 per acre in March 2008, prior to the bond election. The grand opening for the high school was held on August 20, 2011. The move to FM 350 allowed the former high school campus to become the new home to Livingston Intermediate School.<br />
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The high school campus covers 302,463 sq.ft., with 2000 sq.ft. devoted to classroom and lab areas. The band hall, complete with a rehearsal room, practice rooms, and instrument storage space, covers 3,500 sq.ft., while the drama department received a 2,500 sq.ft. black box theater.<br />
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A gymnasium for basketball and volleyball was built to seat 1,800 spectators, along with a 300-seat practice gym. For 13 years, tennis students had to be bused to Matthews Street Park every day for practice, and wait their turn until other finished; now they have an eight-court tennis complex on campus, finished in 2014. In 2016, the district purchased the Texas Slam facility, also known as the Livingston ISD Baseball-Softball Complex, located behind the hospital. It has two fields where boys’ and girls’ teams can host games at the same time, and indoor battling cages where athletes can practice during bad weather.<br />
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9,600 sq.ft. were allotted for the administration, counseling, and nurse’s offices. A 14,000 sq.ft. dining area was designed to seat 550 students at a time, and with more serving lines and meal options available to reduce the waiting time.<br />
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CTE facilities included a lab for building trades, a welding shop, an electrical and plumbing lab and classroom, a nursing lab and classroom, Criminal Justice, and ROTC. Plans for the new media center contained space for library stacks and research technology covering 11,210 sq.ft., as well as a distance learning/tutorial/conference area covering 900 sq.ft.<br />
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The new structure incorporated plans to make the school a hurricane relief center, with a hurricane-resistant design built on pier and beam. All support, athletic, and core areas were linked to a natural gas-powered generator. It was designed to minimize the school’s environmental footprint, with light-colored roofing to reduce heat and overall utility costs, and use of regional and recycled materials.<br />
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The school also features drought-resistant plants and an on-campus well to provide water for irrigation and the agricultural, food, and natural resources programs. There is a greenhouse and tanks of American water-willows that are maintained by the students. The water-willows are transplanted into Lake Livingston with the Lake Livingston Friends of the Reservoir volunteers as part of the “Bringing Lake Livingston Back to Life” project. Livingston High School has been participating in the ten-year program since 2014. Our horticulture students were able to take part in the most recent planting with former First Lady Laura Bush at Wolf Creek Park in September 2017.<br />
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LHS was recognized by the 2012 Exhibit of School Architecture committee for excellence in Process of Planning and Design. The school now has an enrollment of 1,076 students. The Class of 2017 graduated 214 students. The campus also houses Livingston High School Academy, an alternative school for students who have challenges in getting their diploma. The academy graduated an additional 75 students in the LHS graduation ceremony.<br />
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Dual Credit Program<br />
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During the 2018-2019 school year there were 30 freshmen attending Angelina College. There were also 28 sophomores, 40 juniors, and 53 seniors all earning dual credit. The cost to the district was $387 per course and LHS students took 251 courses during the fall of 2018.<br />
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LHS students in the class of 2021 were given the opportunity to take English, Government, History, and Math from Angelina College while earning high school credit at the same time. The courses were offered at no cost to the students. In 2020-21, 160 LHS students attended Angelina College. In the fall of 2020, the incoming freshmen class could earn up to 36 hours of college credit. This could save their families $22,000 in tuition. A new initiative passed by the school board in 2021, allowed the following year’s incoming 9th graders to take up to 60 college hours by the time they graduated high school.<br />
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LHS Athletics<br />
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Livingston High School’s football legacy reaches back to 1916. The team went 1-1 that first year. By the next football season, they’d found a real coach, A. E. Gerlach, to help them to a 3-2 record, including a defeat of the Houston Heights school which had gone unbeaten for four years. In the following decades, the Lions team picked up fourteen district championships, a regional championship, and an area championship.<br />
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