Leader's Academy High School for Business and Academic Success, previously the High School for Business and Economic Success (HSBES), was a Grade 7–12 state charter school located on the campus of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in
Windsor Village Windsor Village is a community in Houston, in the U.S. state of Texas. The Windsor Village United Methodist Church is located in the community. The name of the community reflected a British motif popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s.Houston, in the U.S. state of Texas. The school was formerly named Gulf Shores Academy. In 2011 it merged with Benji's Special Educational Academy into Victory Preparatory Academy.
History
Gulf Shores Academy opened in 1998. The Texas Education Agency tried to shut down the charter school for several years. At a point the school owed the state
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The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
11 million for over-reporting attendance. Harris County prosecutors said that the original founders of the academy sold forged transcripts to undercover investigators. The school moved around from location to location and had a high teacher turnover rate. In 2006 its student body count was between 500 and 600. In 2008 the U.S. Department of Justice criminally charged the school's leader, Linda Johnson, along with document tampering due to the school making false academic transcripts, as parents paid her to create transcripts not reflecting actual academic performance. Johnson received a federal prison term of two years.
In the late 2000s the Windsor Village United Methodist Church took over the school. Originally the church planned to use the former charter, but it decided to ask the Houston Independent School District (HISD) to turn the campus into a district charter. The HISD board voted regarding turning Leader's Academy for High School for Business and Academic Success into a district charter. Leader's Academy was established as an HISD-affiliated charter school in 2007. Members of the charter school's board of trustees as of 2009 included Rod Paige, the former Secretary of Education of the U.S., and Kirbyjon Caldwell, the senior pastor of the church. The board became known as the Management Accountability Corp.
In 2011 it merged with Benji's Special Educational Academy into Victory Preparatory Academy after Leader's Academy's board took over Benji's School. Victory Prep was established as a charter school directly overseen by the state instead of as an HISD charter.
Campus
The school was last located in the former sanctuary of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church. It was formerly at 6000 Heatherbrook.
Dress code
The charter school planned to require students to wear "business attire" and carry briefcases to school.
Notable alumni
As Gulf Shores Academy:
* Gerald Green (Basketball player) - Jennifer Radcliffe of the '' Houston Chronicle'' wrote that Gulf Shores Academy was best known for the problems in management, but that the fact that Green was an alumnus was the second-most-prominent aspect of the school.
As ????:
* Aubrey Coleman (Basketball player)
* Curtis Dennis (Basketball Player)
*
Darington Hobson
Darington O'Neal Hobson (born September 29, 1987) is an American professional basketball player for Minas Tênis Clube of the Novo Basquete Brasil. He played college basketball for the University of New Mexico Lobos men's basketball team.
Born ...
(Basketball Player)
See also
*
List of state-operated charter schools in Houston
This is a list of charter schools in Greater Houston directly administered by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). This list does not include charter schools administered by local school districts such as Houston ISD and Spring Branch ISD.
List of ...