Lone Star College System (LSCS) is a publicly funded, two-year, United States community college system serving the northern portions of the Greater Houston, Texas, area. With "more than 83,000 credit students each semester, and a total enrollment of 95,000 students," Lone Star College System is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area, and the fastest-growing community college system in the United States. The headquarters of the Lone Star College System are located in The Woodlands and in unincorporated Montgomery County, Texas. In 2010 the district was the largest higher education institution in Greater Houston in terms of student enrollment.
As defined by the Texas Legislature, the service area of LSCS includes territory within the following school districts:
- Aldine Independent School District
- Cleveland Independent School District (*)
- Conroe Independent School District
- Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District
- Humble Independent School District
- Huntsville Independent School District (*)
- Klein Independent School District
- Magnolia Independent School District
- Montgomery Independent School District (*)
- New Caney Independent School District
- New Waverly Independent School District (*)
- Splendora Independent School District
- Spring Independent School District
- Tarkington Independent School District (*)
- Tomball Independent School District
- Willis Independent School District
(*) District included in service area by state law, but is not part of the tax base.
History and name changes
The voters of the Aldine, Spring, and Humble school districts created North Harris County College in 1972 and opened the college for classes in 1973.
The district expanded in 1991 to cover neighboring Montgomery County and adopted the new name of North Harris Montgomery Community College District.
As the district expanded to include areas outside north Harris and Montgomery Counties, the Board of Trustees decided the District's current name did not adequately define the service area, plus it was hard to remember and was quite lengthy. During the first semester of the 2007 - 2008 school year, trustees initiated a name-change process using an online voting system; among the options was the name Lone Star College System which was offered as 1) two of the colleges (Lone Star Collegeâ€"North Harris and Lone Star Collegeâ€"Montgomery) already included the name and 2) the 75th Texas Legislature adopted HR1123, recognizing Montgomery County as the birthplace of the Flag of Texas, known for its lone star which serves as the state motto.
The name Lone Star College System was selected by those voting, and on November 1, 2007, the Board of Trustees officially approved Lone Star College System as the District's new name. The Lone Star College logo, known as "The Star of Tomorrow," was designed by Houston advertising agency Richards/Carlberg.
On May 1, 2009, Lone Star College System has purchased the core of the Hewlett Packard (part of Compaq's former headquarters) North Campus on State Highway 249 at Louetta Road in Northwest Harris County. According to Chancellor Richard Carpenter, the facility will serve multiple purposes, including a new university center for north Harris County, an instructional satellite campus, a Corporate College conference and training facility, and System administration and support space. The purchase gives LSCS 1,200,000 square feet (110,000Â m2) of additional space in eight major buildings, as well as parking garages and other support infrastructure, making this one of the largest such acquisitions in higher education history.
Locations
Campuses
- Lone Star Collegeâ€"CyFair (uninc. Harris County)Â
- Lone Star Collegeâ€"CyFair, opened 2003, serves more than 18,000 students with unique programs in fire science technology, logistics management and sonography. The library is a joint project between LSCS and the Harris County Public Library.
- Campus Centers: Fairbanks Center and Cypress Center (2013)
- Lone Star Collegeâ€"Kingwood (Houston)Â
- Kingwood College, opened 1984, serves more than 10,200 students and has distinct offerings in interior design, respiratory care and dental hygiene.
- Campus Centers: EMCID Center and Atascocita Center
- High School Campuses: Cleveland High School and Atascocita High School.
- Lone Star Collegeâ€"Montgomery (uninc. Montgomery County)Â
- Montgomery College, opened 1992, serves more than 12,000 students and is the only Lone Star College System campus to offer biotechnology and physical therapist assistant degrees.
- Campus Center: Conroe Center
- Lone Star Collegeâ€"North Harris (uninc. Harris County)Â
- North Harris College, opened 1973, serves more than 18,000 students and is the district’s only source for automotive technology, health information technology, child development and family studies, paralegal studies,and pharmacy technology programs. A new multi-use Educational and Community Development Center is to be built. This center will replace Carver Center, owned by Aldine ISD.
- Campus Centers: Greenspoint Center, Health Professions Building, Victory Center and CHI Center
- High School Campus: MacArthur High School
- Lone Star Collegeâ€"Tomball (Tomball)Â
- Tomball College, opened 1988, serves more than 11,000 students and is home to the district’s only veterinary technology and wireless telecommunications tech prep programs. The Lone Star College-Tomball Community Library is a joint project between LSCS and the Harris County Public Library.
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- Campus Centers: Creekside Center
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- High School Campuses: Magnolia West High School.
- Lone Star Collegeâ€"University Park (uninc. Harris County)Â
- LSC-University Park is the sixth LSC College, dedicated in December 2012. It is located in the former Compaq Computer’s world headquarters complex in northwest Houston. The campus houses three university partners â€" University of Houston-Downtown, University of Houston and Sam Houston State University. Other programs and entities at the college include charter high school, iSchool High, several business partners, Lone Star Corporate College, LSC's Law Enforcement Academy and the LSC Energy and Manufacturing Institute.
- High School District: Klein, Klein Oak, Klein Forest and Klein Collins high schools.
University centers
- Lone Star Collegeâ€"University Center (The Woodlands, uninc. Montgomery County)Â
- The University Center is a partnership among LSCS and five Texas universities through which district students can pursue bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees as well as post-baccalaureate teacher certifications.
- The University Center at Lone Star Collegeâ€"University Park (uninc. Harris County)Â
- The second LSCS multi-institution teaching center serving northwest Harris County began offering instructional classes in spring 2010.The multi-institution teaching center offers limited degree programs and courses offered by the University of Houston (UH), the University of Houstonâ€"Downtown (UHD), and Sam Houston State University. The University Center is located in Building 12 at Lone Star College-University Park. The site includes a conference center, a cafeteria run by Abby's Catering, the Minuti's Coffee shop, and a fitness center.
Incidents
Campus shooting
On January 22, 2013, the north Harris County campus was put on lockdown for a shooting where at least three people were shot. All were taken to a local hospital with gunshot wounds. The shooting occurred outside the library and learning lab. A Harris County deputy sheriff said, "We found that the incident was not an active shooter incident, but was an altercation between two individuals."
Campus stabbing
On April 9, 2013, the Cy-Fair campus and seven other schools in the area were put on lock down when a student named Dylan Quick started stabbing outside of the science lab and soon went through other buildings. Authorities were notified of the incident at 11:12Â p.m., but the campus wasn't notified until just a minute after. As authorities arrived, Quick had already been chased down and subdued in the parking lot by four fellow students and was soon taken away. A total of sixteen people were injured, two of them critically and four of them seriously; all survived. Quick was charged with one count of attempted murder and two charges of aggravated assault. In December 2015, he was sentenced to 48 years in prison for the attack. He is eligible for parole in 2039.
Bond election
Bond election 2013
Members of the Lone Star College System Board of Trustees responded to a committee of citizen leaders in February when they voted unanimously to put a bond referendum in front of area voters for approval on May 11. The citizens’ committee, representing area business, education, government and civic sectors, recommended to the board that the college system build new learning facilities and infrastructure to accommodate the system’s historical growth.
The $497.7 million bond referendum includes financing for learning facilities at each campus â€" projects that were prioritized and outlined by the group of citizen leaders as part of their recommendation to the board. The May 11 election will also include for consideration three trustee seats on the LSCS Board.
The 2013 bond referendum expands capacity to meet unprecedented student population growth. In the five short years since the last bond referendum in 2008, LSCS has added 30,000 students, which is equivalent to adding the combined total enrollment of five medium-sized colleges like Alvin Community College, Lee College, Galveston College, Temple College and Victoria College.
May 11, 2013 bond election results:
Project overview
- New instructional and support buildings â€" 996,000 sf
- Renovations to existing facilities â€" 252,000 sf
- Increase parking â€" 5,630 spaces
- Improve campus safety and security
- Expand and upgrade technology infrastructure
- Improve traffic flow and campus access
Bond election 2008
On March 7, 2008 LSCS called and approved $420 million bond election for May 10. The board upheld its promise not to increase property taxes by cutting $41.7 million from the original bond proposal, which totaled more than $460 million. The system plans to concentrate on health and science facilities due to a critical shortage of healthcare workers and emergency medical technicians, most of whom are trained at community colleges, prompting the inclusion of a new health professions building at Lone Star Collegeâ€"North Harris and a science and health building at the Montgomery campus. LSCS last attempt to pass more than $200 million in the bond election of November 2006 failed.
May 10, 2008 bond election results:
Statistics
- $263.4 million: Instructional facilities
- $44.2 million: Student services facilities
- $38.3 million: Traffic and safety
- $25.9 million: Technology infrastructure
- $20.1 million: Five percent bond costs/inflation/contingencies
- $15.3 million: Academic support facilities
- $8.7 million: Plant system replacements
- $4.1 million: Administrative support facilities
Headquarters
The headquarters of the Lone Star College System are located in The Woodlands and in unincorporated Montgomery County, Texas. The district moved to its current location on March 17, 2003. The administrative headquarters of the district were previously located in the Greenspoint district and in Houston in a building now known as the Lone Star College-North Harris Greenspoint Center.
Debt
In 2016 Lone Star College system announced that after investigation, Lone Star was not paying taxes on a commercial lease component at LSC-University Park.
"This is good news for taxpayers,†said Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan. “Chancellor Head is handling this professionally and expeditiously. I appreciate Lone Star College and its service to our community. Lawyers assisting the school have determined that total taxes due are $2,024,000. We are working with the College to triple-check the numbers and finalize a repayment plan, getting that money into the hands of taxpayers.â€
References
External links
- Lone Star College System
- North Harris Montgomery Community College District (Archive)
- North Harris Montgomery Community College District from the Handbook of Texas Online
