Mission
The mission of Hitchcock Independent School District is to produce contributing citizens prepared for life-long learning, believing in our country, themselves, and their fellow man in our ever-changing world by providing a personalized, yet diversified, quality education through varied learning experiences with pride, participation and performance in partnership with our community.
Vision
What starts here can change the world.
First Settlers
Around 1846, the place we know today as Hitchcock, was settled. On May 31, 1848, a man by the name of Jonas Butler acquired land on Highland Bayou and built a house. French settlers followed Butler and established homes on the bayou. This community was originally known as Highland due to is proximity to the bayou's high banks. Travelers used the bayou to reach Galveston until the 1870s, when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built through the settlement.
Around 1873, Emily Hitchcock, widow of Galveston civic leader Lent M. Hitchcock, offered a 450-foot-wide tract from Cow Gully east to the section house for a townsite if the railroad would name the community after her late husband. Local farmers shipped cattle and vegetables. A post office was established in 1884 under the name Hitchcock's, later shortened to Hitchcock. Thomas King platted the townsite around 1891, and by 1892 the community reported a population of 275, two grocers, and several fruit growers and commission merchants. Farmers later marketed their vegetables through a cooperative association.
In 1894, a local public school opened and by 1907 the town had two schools, one with eighty-nine White pupils and two teachers and one with thirty-seven Black pupils and one teacher. By 1914 Hitchcock had a bank, a hotel, a blacksmith, three general stores, and a population of 550. The town began to decline with the end of local truck farming after 1920. Most local packing houses closed, many residents moved to find work in Texas City, and by 1925 Hitchcock's population had fallen to 350.
During the early 1930s the town grew slightly, but declined again by the eve of World War II to 350 residents and seventeen businesses. In the 1940s the Hitchcock population level remained steady due to the development of local oil and gas, the establishment of Camp Wallace, and the U.S. Navy's construction of a local blimp base for surveillance of enemy submarines (see HITCHCOCK NAVAL AIR STATION). The camp and base were used as discharge centers after the war, and some of those who passed through became local residents.
During the postwar boom, Hitchcock developed a chamber of commerce, sewers, improved roads, natural gas service, a phone system, and three White and two Black churches.
Hitchcock ISD is established
In 1948, Hitchcock was made an independent school district. The community benefited from proximity to petrochemical industry centers at Texas City, Chocolate Bayou, and Freeport. Hitchcock's population jumped to 1,105 after 1954 and increased steadily after 1960, when the town incorporated. In 1968 Hitchcock's population reached a high of 6,954, served by thirty-six businesses. The number of residents fell during the 1970s. Hitchcock became a residential suburb with the development, only twenty minutes away, of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Project Apollo Space Laboratory Project at Clearwater.
Hitchcock grew from 5,565 residents and twenty-five businesses in 1972 to 6,405 residents and sixty-seven businesses by 1988. In 2000 Hitchcock reported 214 businesses and a population of 6,386.
Hitchcock ISD today
Today, the Hitchcock Independent School District is a public school system nestled in the small community of Hitchcock, Texas, Galveston County, just 15 miles north of Galveston and 40 miles south of downtown Houston.
Hitchcock ISD is comprised of four campuses in addition to Kids First Head Start. The enrollment is approximately 1800 students in grades Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. This student population currently is 44% African American, 31% Hispanic and 22% White. There is an overall rate of 80% for Economically Disadvantage.
Having a close-knit community and small student population allows Hitchcock ISD to have a complete understanding of individual family dynamics as well as an authentic connection to each student.