the approval by the school board, said that the board members wanted concessions specific to their districts, and the school's racial quotas were devised so that the school served the entire school district to satisfy the demands. Fleck said that The Rice School's concept "mushroomed into an incredibly complex educational experiment that aspired to be all things to all parties with an interest in its success." The intention was to attract students from the West University Place area by the promotion of the school's ties to Rice University, the presence of, in Fleck's words, "more computers than a private school," and the grouping of classes into clusters; in the clusters students would progress at their own rates and tutor one another. Residents of lower income inner city neighborhoods were to be attracted to Rice as a way to have their children avoid neighborhood schools with violent incidents. Rice University was to benefit from additional ties to the Houston community and having educational theories demonstrated in practice. According to McAdams, many people, especially West University Place residents, believed that the school would have selected gifted and talented admissions because of the association with Rice University. In 1997 McAdams retrospectively said "there were high expectations -- admittedly unreasonable expectations." Opening The school opened on August 1994. Kaye Stripling was the first principal. Circa January 1995 Stripling left her position as she received a promotion, and Sharon Koonce, previously at Oak Forest Elementary, replaced her. About 1,280 students from Kindergarten through 6th grade were enrolled when the school opened. Over 7,169 students applied for 1,275 slots, and half of the students previously attended overcrowded schools in the West University Place area. Fewer than 15 students who were offered admission declined the offer. Many teachers at Rice came from other Houston ISD schools. The elementary school grades had about 50% White Americans, and 25% each Hispanic Americans and Black Americans. The middle school grades had about 33% each of White, Black, and Hispanic students. Of all Rice students, 11% were Asian Americans. The students lived all across the City of Houston. Initially the school organized students from Kindergarten through 2nd grade into one cluster, 3rd through 5th grades in another cluster, and the middle school grades in another cluster. According to McAdams, many parties felt unsatisfied by the outcome of the student placement lottery. Eight student placements per grade level were reserved for dependents