John J. Pershing Middle School is a middle school in Houston, Texas, United States. It is located in the Braeswood Place neighborhood, near the Texas Medical Center. The school, that serves around 1,650 students in grades 6 through 8, is managed by the Houston Independent School District. Pershing has a neighborhood program and a Pre-AP Gifted and Talented program, and is a fine arts magnet school. History West University Place Pershing Junior High School, which was named after John J. Pershing, was established in 1928. Pershing originally was connected to West University Elementary School (which was located in the city of West University Place after the city incorporated in 1938); the school moved to its own campus at 7000 Braes Boulevard in Houston in 1949. The campus was worth $2 million. This relieved West University Elementary. It was funded by a 1944 bond, and the Braes Heights Realty Company had donated the land. University of Texas academics had suggested a different plan of action, but the decision to separate West University Elementary and Pershing into separate campuses was made by HISD superintendent W. E. Moreland, along with the business manager, H. L. Mills. An arson incident occurred in August 1958. Pershing was previously reserved for white children but it desegregated by 1970. In September 1991 Pershing was one of 32 HISD schools that had capped enrollments; in other words the school was filled to capacity and excess students had to attend other schools. In 1992 there was a proposal to convert Gordon Elementary in Bellaire into a middle school to serve Bellaire residents. This proposal was favored by those zoned to Jane Long Middle School but it was opposed by those zoned to Pershing as they did not want to lose access to the school. The Gordon proposal ultimately did not happen. Pershing had, in March 2002, a waiting list of 1,000 students for 120 places. Originally, Houston ISD planned to remodel Pershing's 1949 campus. When HISD found that building a new campus from scratch would be more cost-effective, HISD decided to pursue that goal. Construction started on Pershing's brand new two-story campus at 3838 Bluebonnet (on the same site as the old campus) during the summer of 2005. Construction was expected to end in Summer 2007, and the new campus was originally expected to open in Fall 2007 . The lead architect for the campus was PGAL, with Gilbane