Plans for Bellaire HS reconstruction stir debate

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Hundreds of residents packed a community meeting Monday night regarding the $100 million renovation at Bellaire High School.

"The problem is that the school that you want is too big for the site that you have," resident Lynn McVee said.

It was an overwhelming response to what appeared to be one of the biggest concerns of the night, the size of the high school and the size of the student population.

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 people told Bellaire City Council it needs to do more to sway HISD's ideas as they plan the new high school.

"You try to get first responders down Holly, Maple and Valerie to either a fire or any other kind of incident, you as a city council are going to be faced with a really, really drastic disaster," resident Steven Freeman said.

In response to early criticism, HISD brought new options to the table, including phasing the construction with students on site or temporarily relocating students to other campuses: like the freshman class to the Mandarin Chinese Immersion School once that is vacated and the 10th graders to DeBakey or HSPVA.

But even that option is getting pushback from students.

"I think that's detrimental," student Leana Wang said, "because the culture of a high school is more than just a building. The culture of a high school is the student population that lives there and if we want to keep the Bellaire culture together then that means keeping the students together."