Cy-Fair High School is a secondary school located in Cypress, which is an unincorporated place in Harris County, Texas, near Houston. The school is located along U.S. Highway 290 and is part of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. Cy-Fair High School is the only CFISD high school with a hyphen in its official name. The school mascot is the bobcat, and the school's colors are white and maroon. Students attending the school have classes from 7:15 a.m. to 2:40 p.m.
History Establishment of the Cypress and Fairbanks's separate school systems, Cypress School, and Rural High School No. 5 When the New Orleans Railroad Company's track line to Houston was built in 1856, two towns were established, with Cypress on one side of the track and Fairbanks on the other. Cypress and Fairbanks remained being two separate towns with separate school systems throughout the early 1900s. Though both of their school systems had schools for children up to eighth grade, once they reached high school, students in Fairbanks had to travel to Houston every day for school, and the Cypress high school students had to travel to Addicks.
A 20-acre plot of land was handed out to the district by Louis Telge, also known as the grandfather of the previous School Board members John and Chester Telge. On the newly donated land, a school called, "Big Cypress Schoolhouse, No. 2. Dist. 6", was built in the year of 1884, in Cypress, Texas. It was also called the "Cypress School". When it was first built in 1884, the building was a one-room school, however, over the years, new rooms were built on, and soon enough, the Cypress School later consisted of seven rooms, a superintendent's office, a library, and a wood-framed schoolhouse for high school students by 1937. By that year, however, was when elementary and high school students who went to this school were divided up, and the high school students transitioned to a separate facility. The facility they were transferred to was Rural High School No. 5, built in 1937, which was part of the Fairbanks School District. In December, 1939, the citizens living in the area voted to combine the two districts into one united district.
The opening of Cy-Fair High School, Racial Desegregation, Carverdale Students, and Jersey Village High School Finally, a few years after Cypress and Fairbanks had officially consolidated, Cy-Fair High School was officially opened in the Spring of 1942, and students from Rural High School No. 5 were transferred to the new school. First lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, visited the school on the day it opened. The school received its accreditation less than a year after opening. According to Community Impact, Jane Ledbetter with the Cypress Historical Society had said that the school "really solidified the two districts coming together" and that it was "symbolic". Meanwhile, the wood-framed schoolhouse at the Cypress School burned down that same year.
In 1944, CFISD’s Cypress Agriculture and Rodeo Program was established. The next year, the program brought in $12,000.
The Cypress area was quite rural at the time of the school's grand opening, however, in the latter half of the 20th century, Cypress was transitioning from rural to suburban.
Somewhat close to Cy-Fair High school was the Carverdale School for African-American students, which was founded in 1925 when a German dairy farmer donated his farmhouse, which was first used as a Baptist church and school for younger students. The next year, it was given the name, "Fairbanks Colored School". There were very few teachers working there at the time. In fact, at one point, from 1928 and stretching all the way to 1951, there was one sole teacher of the entire school. Her name was Clara Scott.
Soon enough, by 1956, it was serving students ranging from first grade to 12th grade, was relocated to Clara Road (named after Clara Scott in her honor in 1937). This was also the year the school got its final name change to "Caverdale School". Additionally, the school already had a choir room, band hall, and library by that point. Eventually, the school gained a gymnasium, a home economics department, auto mechanics shop class, and a science lab. Like Cy-Fair, the school was progressing rapidly and embracing the open model concept for schools. Later on, in 1967, 800 of the students at Caverdale school began enrolling at Cy-Fair High School, under the "Freedom of Choice" option.
On August 3rd of 1970, the school was permanently shut down due to a school board vote, so all high school aged students who went to the school were now attending Cy-Fair High School. The building for the Caverdale School was repurposed into a campus for the Houston Community College shortly after. The building was later completely torn down, with warehouses being built in its place.
Cy-Fair High School remained the only standing high school in the Cypress Fairbanks School District until Jersey Village High School opened in 1972.
School Renovation starting in the 1990s, 2016 Flood, 2017 Super Bowl, Rezoning, and Hurricane Harvey For 1999–2001, the school was renovated and expanded, adding 20 classrooms and a new library. Plans were made to renovate the school in 1998, due to the school becoming increasingly cramped over the years and the desire to update the classrooms to make way for advancing technology. Voters approved for a bond issue that granted the school more than $29 million in funding for the restoration of the building. They started in the summer of 1999. The roof of the main corridor at the school was soon removed, and the old Cy-Fair Brigade gym was taken down.
Following heavy rainfall, Cy-Fair High School was flooded on April 18, 2016, as a result of the April 2016 North American storm complex, sometimes referred to as the "Tax Day Flood" by some., which has affected many parts of the greater Houston area The flood left some damage to Cy-Fair High School. The carpet had to be replaced in twenty classrooms, and the school library, and the tile floor of the school's weight room had to be replaced. as well Cy-Fair was one of the 57 campuses in the Cypress Fairbanks District damaged by the flood. Unsurprisingly, all of the schools in the district were closed from April 18 to 22.
On Sunday, February 5, 2017, the Cy-Fair High School Brigade, along with many other dance teams from the school district, performed with Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl LI Halftime show that took place at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
As part of high school rezoning, a portion of Cy-Fair's attendance zone, as well as portions of Cypress Falls High School and Cypress Woods High School's attendance zones, was to be reassigned to Cypress Ranch High School in 2017."Final Recommendation 1-11-16 ." Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. Retrieved on January 5, 2016. This document shows changes in attendance zones between 2015-2016 and 2017-2018.
On August 26, 2017, the school was, once again, flooded as a result of Hurricane Harvey. All of the schools in the Cypress Fairbanks District postponed the opening of the school year of 2017–2018 for two weeks before reopening and setting its new first day of the school year on September 11, 2017. Shortly after the hurricane hit, Cy-Fair High School's rugby team volunteered to clean out the flood-damaged homes within their community, twenty-seven homes being the total amount that they helped to clean out. As a result, they were honored with a plaque for their contributions to the community.
Covid-19 Pandemic, 2021 Snow Storm, Firearm in Bathroom Trashcan, Budget Cut for School Buses At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that started COVID-19 lockdowns during the spring of 2020, all the schools in the Cypress-Fairbanks School District shut down their campuses, cancelling all in person classes for the rest of the 2019–2020 school year and transitioning them to an online learning option that was created for students and teachers to use online without being on campus.
When the new school year 2020–2021 rolled around, teachers and some students returned to campus for a traditional classroom setting, although students had the option to continue to use online learning at home that year as well. Some officials have said that they believe that the students benefited with the in-person option rather than the newer online option. For 2021–2022, though Cy-Fair students would stop using the online remote learning program, this program that was put for the 2020–21 school year would be held on to for students after the COVID-19 pandemic in case remote learning is needed in the future due to an emergency. Linda Macias, also known as The Chief Academic Officer, said that because of CFISD needing to create the online learning program due to the pandemic, the school district had broken down innumerable technological barriers that had been in the way of students and teachers before.
In February 2021, all district schools were shut down when Texas was hit with a snowstorm, caused by the February 2021 North American cold wave, that lasted from February 11 until February 20, which resulted in the 2021 Texas power crisis. It left dozens of district campuses with massive water damage, some suffering with burst pipes caused by power outages and extremely low temperatures. The students were able to return to school on February 22, with the damages being fixed.
In the school year 2020–2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cy-Fair High School students, staff, and teachers were required to wear a face mask on campus to protect each other from contacting COVID-19. Although Governor Greg Abbott made his announcement that went effective on March 10, 2021, which stated that Texans will no longer be required by state law to wear a mask in public, the school and the other schools in the district were still legally allowed to implement mask mandates.
However, later on, in May of that same year, the district soon had no choice but to end the mandate due to Abbott signing an executive order that banned mask requirements in public facilities. Therefore, face masks in Cy-Fair High School, and every other school in their district, were restricted from being able to choose whether or not to make mask mandates active in 2021–2022. On the other hand, they were able to keep social distancing guidelines in Cy-Fair High School, like in all of the schools in the district until the pandemic was over.
Out of all of the schools in the Cypress Fairbanks School District, Cy-Fair High School has had the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the 2021–22 school year, according to district data.
On Thursday, May 23, 2024, a gun was reported in a trashcan in one of the boys' restrooms. According to Principal Ana Martin, once the school's administration figured out who had brought the weapon to the school, the student or students involved (identities are unknown to the public) were severely punished.
For school year 2024–2025, due to limited money issues of the district, a budget reduction for school buses was made for all schools at CFISD, causing problematic changes to bus routes that faced backlash from students and parents alike, from all schools, with 79 bus routes being cut with no warning, massive traffic jams, and four children getting into accidents while walking or cycling to school for long distance in busy and not so pedestrian-friendly streets. All middle school and high school students in the district who lived two miles or less from their school did not have access to a school bus, because of this budget reduction.
Academics