Medical academy (en)rolls $29M to Brownsville

BROWNSVILLE – The South Texas Independent School District announced plans for a more than $28.7 million Medical Academy campus on land across Expressway 77/83 from Rancho Viejo.

The school will accommodate an estimated 750 to 800 students and will replace the South Texas Academy for Medical Professions in San Benito, as Medical Academy is formally known.

When the new Brownsville campus opens, the district will convert the existing Medical Academy in San Benito to a new middle school for Cameron County serving seventh- and eighth-grade students.

About 200 enrollment slots are available for the 2013-2014 school year at the current Medical Academy campus.

School officials said STISD has 3,400 students overall, about 450 of which district wide come from Brownsville. The current Medical Academy has about 500 students, according to Harry Goette, the principal of Medical Academy.

STISD is the only all-magnet public school district in Texas. In addition to Medical Academy, the district operates two magnet schools in Mercedes, the South Texas High School for Health Professions (Med High) and the Science Academy of South Texas (Sci Tech).

The South Texas Business, Education and Technology Academy (BETA), and the district’s middle school, the South Texas Preparatory Academy (STPA), are in Edinburg.