About Dickinson ISD

Public education in Dickinson began in 1891 in a single schoolhouse near Dickinson Bayou and what is now Highway 3. The school district was organized into an independent school district in 1941, when it had an enrollment of 541 students. In 1953, the Dickinson public schools consolidated with the Bacliff-San Leon schools to create the District as it is configured today. Located halfway between Houston and Galveston on the Texas Gulf Coast, the Dickinson ISD now serves approximately 11,600 students in 14 different schools who live in the cities of Dickinson, League City and Texas City and the unincorporated towns of Bacliff and San Leon. 

Last school year, Dickinson ISD celebrated the opening of a ninth grade building on the campus of Dickinson High School. Located at the corner of Baker Drive and FM 517, this new building houses up to 900 high school freshmen helps alleviate the growing high school student enrollment. 

Kranz Junior High is the district’s newest campus. The district’s second junior high is named for Eugene “Gene” Kranz, a long-time Dickinson resident and NASA pioneer who served as Mission Control Flight Director for Gemini and Apollo programs. Kranz Junior High serves half of the district’s students in grades 7-8 and is also home to the junior high STEM Academy. The STEM Academy has been in place at Barber Middle School the past four years serving students in grades 5-6. The opening of Kranz Junior High allowed the district to expand the STEM Academy to students in grades 7-8. The STEM Academy is open to students throughout the district to apply and is designed to increase student achievement by engaging students in innovative science, technology, engineering and math instruction. 

The district includes seven elementary campuses, Bay Colony Elementary, Calder Road Elementary, Hughes Road Elementary, K.E. Little Elementary, Lobit Elementary, San Leon Elementary and Silbernagel Elementary, which serve pre-kindergarten through grade four in designated attendance zones. Barber Middle School, Dunbar Middle School and Lobit Middle School are home to the district’s fifth and sixth grade students. Seventh and eighth grade students attend Kranz Junior High and McAdams Junior High and students in grades 9-12 attend Dickinson High School. The Dickinson Continuation Center (DCC) provides students with a nontraditional academic learning environment in order to earn a high school diploma. The campus works with students who due to family, work or other issues might not otherwise ever obtain a high school diploma. The Dickinson Alternative Learning Center (DALC) serves assigned students. The district also offers the Gator Academy which provides employees with a cost effective daycare option for their children ages six weeks to five years. 

Dickinson ISD covers 61 square miles, which is much more than the City of Dickinson boundaries. The district’s boundaries on the north take in portions of Tuscan Lakes on both sides of Highway 96. To the south, the district goes all the way to the Gulf Greyhound Dog Track on both sides of I-45 and includes the new Tanger Outlet Mall and the new Lago Mar subdivision, which will surround the outlet mall. Galveston Bay, including the communities of Bacliff and San Leon, is the district’s eastern boundary. To the west, the district goes up to Cemetery Road and includes all the new communities in the Bay Colony area. 

To help accommodate the growing student enrollment, voters have approved five bond issues in the past two decades totaling more than $360 million, which has provided several new campuses as well as renovations and expansions on other campuses.