Galveston Independent School District is a school district headquartered in Galveston, Texas, United States. In 2013, the school district was rated as having "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency. Catchment area Galveston ISD takes students from the cities of Galveston and Jamaica Beach. Galveston ISD also serves unincorporated areas of Galveston County, including the communities of Port Bolivar and Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula. GISD uses a "freedom of choice" model in which a student may seek to attend any school in the district if the school has a seat for the given student. The district only provides school bus transportation on the Bolivar Peninsula for the Crenshaw K-8 School. For the campuses in Galveston the district will provide transportation to any part of GISD. In previous eras Galveston ISD house or residential area was assigned to an elementary school and a middle school. In Port Bolivar, the houses and residential areas are zoned to a K-8 center. All high school students in Galveston ISD were zoned to attend Ball High School. Galveston College serves the catchment area of Galveston ISD. History In 1881, the citizens of Galveston, authorized by the legislative act of 1879 which specified that all cities of a certain size could initiate and maintain their own school system, organized a public school district and elected a board of trustees. Some 20 teachers were employed to teach students in grades one through seven. Prior to this time, all education in Galveston was private or parochial. In the summer of 1883, a local dry goods businessman, George Ball, offered to finance construction of new schools. Ball's offer was accepted, and the cornerstone for what would become Ball High School was laid on February 15, 1884. Ball died on March 11, 1884 without seeing his gift completed. Ball High School opened its doors to 200 pupils on October 1, 1884, with a building consisting of 12 classrooms, two offices and an auditorium. According to Gary Cartwright's "Galveston, A History of the Island", two alderman pressured the school board to open the new school to all races. At first, the school board agreed to do that, but changed its mind when Ball's heirs offered to give another $10,000, if the high school was only for white students. Susan Wiley Hardwick's Mythic Galveston: Reinventing America's Third Coast documents that Central High School was opened as a high school for