River Oaks Elementary School is a magnet school, and neighborhood school, part of the Houston Independent School District. It is located in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, Texas, United States , Brett Gallini is the principal. It houses one of several gifted and talented programs, referred to as "Vanguard" programs, in Houston ISD. The school's motto is "Where discovery is elementary". Its mascot is the roadrunner. River Oaks Elementary School has an accelerated multidisciplinary curriculum. It became one of the first three elementary schools in Texas to get authorization for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (the primary school division of the IB program) during the 2002 - 2003 school year, and the curriculum was changed accordingly during the same school year. History Early history River Oaks Elementary was designed by architect Harry D. Payne, who, in 1926, arrived in Houston after being hired by the Houston Independent School District to design the school. Payne gave the same floor plan to River Oaks, Briscoe, Field, Henderson, Poe, and Wharton elementaries. He insisted on giving each school a unique exterior. Payne said that River Oaks' design was one of his favorite designs. Landscaping architect William M. Anderson created the landscaping plans. The River Oaks Corporation provided the land that the school was built on, which was worth $50,000; the corporation wanted the school to be built as soon as possible, so it sold the land at half price to HISD. Ima Hogg, Mrs. Agnese Carter Nelms, and Mrs. Pat Houstoun originally considered founding a private school, but after they approved of the philosophy of HISD superintendent Edison Oberholtzer, they supported his efforts. Since HISD distributed most of its funds to junior and high schools, the "Supplementary Aids committee" founded by Hogg and the other women funded a furnished library for River Oaks. Hogg, HISD officials, and a group of mothers selected Eva Margaret Davis as the school's first principal. Estelle Sharp, Hugh Potter, and the Hoggs created a telephone campaign which had River Oaks mothers make telephone calls to persuade Edison E. Oberholtzer, the HISD superintendent, into modeling the school's education program after John Dewey's ideals. River Oaks opened in 1929. As the school grew, more classrooms were added. First permanent additions were built. Later temporary buildings were set up on the school grounds. In 1974 most of River Oaks was assigned to River Oaks Elementary School. River Oaks Elementary