Juan Navarro Early College High School (formerly Sidney Lanier High School) was established in 1961 as the sixth high school in the Austin Independent School District (AISD) and was originally located in the building which today houses Burnet Middle School. Lanier was named in honor of the famous southern poet

Sidney Lanier Sidney Clopton Lanier (February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American musician, poet and author. He served in the Confederate States Army as a private, worked on a blockade-running ship for which he was imprisoned (resulting in his catch ...

. The AISD Board of Trustees voted on March 24, 2019, to rename the school Juan Navarro High School. Juan Navarro was a 2007 graduate who died in Afghanistan from an

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechan ...

in July 2012. The current campus, opened in 1966, is located on Payton Gin Road. In 1997, Lanier was nationally recognized as a

Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

, the highest honor a school could receive at the time. When it first opened, Lanier had virtually an all White student base with a highly active FFA chapter, but over the years it has become a primarily

Mexican-American Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...

school with over 85% of its students being Hispanic.

Notable alumni

Tommy Boggs Thomas Winton Boggs (October 25, 1955 – October 5, 2022) was an American professional baseball player and college baseball coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher for the Texas Rangers (1976–1977, 1985) and the ...

, 1st round draft pick and

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher *

Albert Burditt Albert Lajuane Burditt (born May 15, 1972) is an American retired basketball player. He played for four years at the University of Texas at Austin, before being drafted by the Houston Rockets in the 1994 NBA draft. However, he did not play in the ...

, professional basketball player *

Derrick Strait Derrick Lee Strait (born August 27, 1980) is a former American college and professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons during the early 2000s. He played college football for the Un ...

, professional football player * Ken Harvey, Four-time NFL Pro Bowl football player
James T. Harris
1983 University of Texas Baseball National Champions, Doctor of Physical Therapy, AMTA, OCS, FAAOMPT, 5th Grade Patrol Service Captain * SMV Tone Professional artist, Entrepreneur, philanthropist

References

External links

Navarro ECHS Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Navarro, Juan High School High schools in Austin, Texas Austin Independent School District high schools Educational institutions established in 1961 1961 establishments in Texas