James Bowie High School

"So, never been there before, but a friend went for an appointment and said he saw an EMPTY security truck parked out front, NO security guard ANYWHERE in sight, went in the admin building and wandered around for a few minutes until he found his destination, and nobody said one word... Total stranger. But you people say the kids are safe ? Not good. Needs to be fixed. That's all. Thanks."

"Bowie! My hell! Love the attempt to make the school look like a cave, really makes me feel at home! A wonderful place for demons and sad children alike!"

"Dumpy building....checked out teachers ... crappy support staff and the school is at 120% capacity. It's crowded, there is no discipline and the hallways are not heated or air conditioned. Experience was so awful had to pull my kid out and find another school option. Very disappointed to see that half of my property taxes are going to AISD. Clearly not a good use of funds."

"I rate this school a 3 solely on the fact that I had the best history teacher Mr. Lyon. Unfortunately his not there anymore but he truly care for his students and helped the students succeed and the other reason was being a football trainer. Football got me through the tough 4 years I was at Bowie. Other than that, the administration was horrible. We have the oblivious principal who knows absolutely nothing, we have the bully principal who makes the experience at Bowie a living hell for both students and teachers who in my opinion needs to be kicked out of AISD district , and finally we have the principal who plays favorites by determining who is able to break the dress code and who's not depending on people's appearance. The front office are the rudest people in the entire world and look at you like your criminals or something. This school is a wreck. Advice for new teachers don't start your career here if you aren't strong enough to hold your ground because they will kick you around til you chose to resign. NOT KIDDING."

"So I graduated from this school some time ago and my experience there was just okay. This school is getting 3 stars mainly on the fact that most of the professors are plain out awesome. I don't remember every teacher that made my time there great but right off the top of my head we got Rasmus, Widner, Thompson, Morgan, Gomez, Pittman, Reina, Ingram, Evans, and Mainey. These professors and faculty care about the students and are prime examples of a person who has passion for what they do and are working in a school to help shape the generation of tomorrow. The school itself has a pretty nice and open layout which gives it a college campus feel. The food served at the cafeteria is decent and school is kept very clean considering how many students there are. That's pretty much where the positives end. As for the negatives there are plenty. It's unfortunate that only a few bad teachers and counselors can have such a huge impact on the experience as a whole. As much as I don't want to directly call someone out I will have to because Nona May made my experience there miserable. She didn't only make mine miserable because every single person I knew who had the same counselor hated asking her for help. She didn't like doing anything you asked her and would often sigh. I also noticed how differently she treated male and female students which I found pathetic. Kapoke is another counselor that is equally as terrible, she doesn't like doing things for students and she will often say 'no' to something that she can do in five minutes. Pretty much anytime I needed help from the counselor I would ask the other counselors who didn't have to help me but more than gladly went out of their way to do so. Let me remind you that May & Kapoke's job as a counselor is to be there for the students and do what the teachers cannot do. They are supposed to be there as support for the students in case they have problems at home or with a teacher. Now, who does a student go to if he/she cannot go to their counselor? Definitely not the principal whom I never saw during my time a Bowie until I shook his hand at graduation. Would be nice to see the principal walk around the school from time to time right? Well, he doesn't. It's funny because this school could easily be a 4 star school if faculty who is not doing their job is held accountable or let go. As someone who transferred into Bowie just make sure your parents are on top of everything being transferred from your previous school. My counselor didn't do her job correctly and I ended up having to re-take classes and some grades were transferred incorrectly which I realized too late. Another issue is that this school really likes focusing on those teams they got that rarely win anything. Would be nice if they focused a bit more on the arts, tech, and engineering departments but... who am I to say where they should focus on teaching? One of those football players might solve our energy crisis by throwing a football that can harness energy from that amazing spin to power our homes. Jokes aside, sports bring in money to the school but lots of money is also spent on it which is why you should not send your kid here if his focus is technology or art related. You could ask many Bowie graduates and they would tell you that their time here was pretty much wasted. Now, this isn't to say this is a problem only with Bowie because it's not. Lots of schools are like this but it's worth pointing out that this is one of those schools that prioritizes that the girls volleyball team practices in the gym while the Physical Education students are outside on the hallway floor doing silly exercises straight out a 20 yr old DVD on how to be fit. Thought I would give people an idea of what this school is like and what to look out for. Nothing mentioned in this review is personal but rather objective. Education is no joke especially during a teen's life when kids are deciding what they want to be when they grow up."