Ball High School is a public secondary school in Galveston, Texas, United States. Ball, which covers grades 9 through 12, is a part of Galveston Independent School District.Ball High School serves the cities of Galveston and Jamaica Beach and the unincorporated communities of Port Bolivar and Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula. The school mascot is the Tornado.HistoryFoundingIn 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, communicated his intention to support the establishment of a public high school in Galveston via a brief and simple note to the Galveston City Council. It read: "If the authorities of this city will furnish appropriate and sufficient grounds centrally located, I will contribute $50,000 for the erection of a building to be permanently dedicated to the use of the public free schools of the City of Galveston...I will be pleased to carry into the earliest effect with the hope that it may prove useful to the community with which I have been long identified and whose future welfare I most earnestly desire."
