Convenience Big Store: From a one-room schoolhouse to a $1.9B bond package, how The Woodlands' schools came to be

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From a one-room schoolhouse to a $1.9B bond package, how The Woodlands' schools came to be

In 1976, Jill Houser was an eighth grader at the new McCullough High School when her photo was taken and placed in an architectural magazine. Now, she's the school's principal.

Fifty years before founder George Mitchell and Conroe ISD superintendent J.L. McCullough first turned a "marsh buggy" into what's now McCullough Junior High, the only schools in the area were two one-room schoolhouses. Nearly fifty years later, The Woodlands hosts two school districts, award-winning private schools and a robust community college program.

Houser, who spent years in Waco before coming back to teach at her hometown, has been here for much of it.

"Conroe ISD has only gotten better," Houser said. "I can't imagine a different path."

Click here to learn about how it all came to be and what's to come after the $1.9 billion bond passed in November.

What are your favorite memories at a Woodlands school? Let me know at claire.partain@houstonchronicle.com.

Claire Partain, Suburban reporter producer

Claire.Partain@houstonchronicle.com

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